Carlos Sainz Jr took his second convincing win of the weekend at Paul Ricard to move closer to the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series title as his main rival Roberto Merhi could only finish fourth.
DAMS driver Sainz made a great start to beat pole-sitter Pierre Gasly of Arden Motorsport into the first corner and quickly pulled out a large gap, and eventually led his fellow Red Bull Junior driver home by 12.637s.
Oliver Rowland made amends from his race one disappointments to complete the podium for Fortec Motorsports after managing to pass the fast starting Jazeman Jaafar of ISR Racing and Merhi’s Zeta Corse during the pit stops.
Merhi maintained his outside chance of the championship by finishing fourth, passing Jaafar impressively just after his pit stop. The Spaniard is now the only one that can deny Sainz the championship but sits forty-four points behind with only fifty available in the final event at Jerez in three weeks time.
Jaafar keep Merhi on his toes for a good spell afterwards but was forced to settle for fifth, while Lotus driver Matthieu Vaxiviere built on his race one podium with a sixth place finish in race two.
Sergey Sirotkin made a bad start from third place on the grid and could not recover, finishing seventh in the second Fortec Motorsports machine, while Will Stevens finished eighth for Strakka Racing.
Nicholas Latifi claimed his first points for Tech 1 Racing with a fighting ninth place, with William Buller claiming the final point for Arden Motorsport in tenth, just ahead of Beitske Visser.
Paul Ricard Race 2 Result
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
1 | Carlos Sainz Jr | ESP | DAMS | 42m02.446s |
2 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | +12.637s |
3 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | +19.676s |
4 | Roberto Merhi | ESP | Zeta Corse | +22.253s |
5 | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR | +23.671s |
6 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | FRA | Lotus | +24.653s |
7 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsports | +33.820s |
8 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | +39.277s |
9 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Tech 1 Racing | +41.967s |
10 | William Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsport | +42.392s |
11 | Beitske Visser | NED | AV Formula | +44.825s |
12 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Comtec Racing | +46.242s |
13 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | +54.613s |
14 | Meindert van Buuren | NED | Pons Racing | +58.022s |
15 | Oscar Tunjo | COL | Pons Racing | +58.331s |
16 | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | +58.574s |
17 | Matias Lainé | FIN | Strakka Racing | +58.976s |
18 | Cameron Twynham | GBR | Comtec Racing | +1m03.271s |
19 | Zoel Amberg | SWI | AV Formula | +1 Lap |
20 | Pietro Fantin | BRZ | International Draco Racing | +1 Lap |
RET | Marco Sorensen | DEN | Tech 1 Racing | 16 Laps |
RET | Norman Nato | FRA | DAMS | 15 Laps |