Carlos Sainz Jr dominated the first race of the weekend at Motorland Aragon for his second consecutive lights-to-flag victory from pole position. The DAMS driver held off a fast starting Comtec Racing’s Nikolay Martsenko at the first corner and ended the race 14.335s ahead of the Russian driver at the end of the race.
Oliver Rowland finished third for his first Formula Renault 3.5 series podium for Fortec Motorsport, holding off the Lotus of Philippines driver Marlon Stockinger. Both Rowland and Stockinger were forced to work for their positions by Zoel Amberg, who held third for a good portion of the race before both passed the AV Formula driver on lap 13. Amberg eventually finished fifth, holding off two rookies in the form of Roberto Merhi of Zeta Corse and Matthieu Vaxiviere in the second Lotus.
Russian driver Sergey Sirotkin finished down in eighth in the second Fortec Motorsport machine, ahead of Pierre Gasly in the Arden Motorsport machine and Pietro Fantin in the leading International Draco Racing entry. Gasly ran off the track a turn one and damaged his nose, compromising his race.
Will Stevens’ mediocre weekend continue, with the Strakka Racing driver only managing to climb to twelfth after starting fifteenth on the grid. The winner of the opening race at Monza last time out is now twenty-five points behind championship leader Sainz. Martsenko now sits second in the championship, fourteen points behind the Spaniard, with Stockinger in third.
There were two retirements at the end of the opening lap in the form of Pons Racing’s Oliver Webb and Arden Motorsport’s Will Buller.
Aragon Race 1 Result
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
1 | Carlos Sainz Jr | ESP | DAMS | 43m14.984s |
2 | Nikolay Martsenko | RUS | Comtec Racing | +14.335s |
3 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsport | +24.291s |
4 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | +24.488s |
5 | Zoel Amberg | SWI | AVF | +33.825s |
6 | Roberto Merhi | ESP | Zeta Corse | +34.652s |
7 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | FRA | Lotus | +34.942s |
8 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsport | +37.387s |
9 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | +38.622s |
10 | Pietro Fantin | BRZ | International Draco Racing | +42.885s |
11 | Norman Nato | FRA | DAMS | +43.309s |
12 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | +46.232s |
13 | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR | +48.853s |
14 | Meindert van Buuren | NED | Pons Racing | +49.922s |
15 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | Tech 1 Racing | +51.361s |
16 | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | +54.250s |
17 | Roman Mavlanov | RUS | Zeta Corse | +57.127s |
18 | Beitske Visser | NED | AVF | +59.760s |
19 | Matias Laine | FIN | Strakka Racing | +1m05.335s |
RET | Oliver Webb | GBR | Pons Racing | 1 Lap |
RET | Will Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsport | 1 Lap |