Lando Norris became the first driver in 2016 to win three times in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup as he took the victory in the opening race at a wet Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.
The British Josef Kaufmann Racing driver survived the early challenge from Dorian Boccolacci and the intervention of the safety car when Ghislain Cordeel crashed at Les Combes, pulling out a gap to take the victory by 8.155 seconds.
Boccolacci’s second place, coupled with Jehan Daruvala’s seventh place finish, ensured the Tech 1 Racing driver returned to the head of the championship standings, with the Frenchman having to hold off the challenge of JD Motorsport’s James Allen in the closing stages, the Australian driver finishing on the podium for the first time in his Formula Renault 2.0 career.
Alex Gill continued his ever-improving race craft with a strong drive to fourth for Mark Burdett Motorsport, his best finish of the season so far, with Henrique Chaves also bettering his best with fifth for AVF.
Robert Shwartzman was sixth for Josef Kaufmann Racing ahead of team-mate Daruvala, while Julien Falchero of R-ace GP, Antoni Ptak of Cram Motorsport and Sacha Fenestraz of Tech 1 Racing completed the top ten.
Max Defourny had a day to forget, with the R-ace GP driver unable to set a time during a red flag affected qualifying session, and then suffered with power loss that saw him make several visits to the pits.
Will Palmer was amongst three drivers who did not start the race alongside Bruno Baptista and Pietro Peccenini, who all damaged their cars in incidents during qualifying.
Spa-Francorchamps Race 1 Result
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