Robert Shwartzman took over at the top of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Series championship standings after a lights-to-flag victory at the Nurburgring on Saturday.
The R-ace GP ace kept the lead from pole position at the start, while Daniel Ticktum attempted to grab second from Max Defourny, only to be rebuked at turn three, with the Belgian then holding onto the tail of his team-mate until the chequered flag.
Shwartzman eventually saw the chequered flag at the end of 14 laps with an advantage of just 0.615 seconds from Defourny, while Sacha Fenestraz made a great move around the outside of Ticktum to grab third for Josef Kaufmann Racing at turn eleven early on.
There was a little bit of controversy a little late on when Ticktum, whilst defending from Max Fewtrell heading into the chicane at the end of lap, run across the grass and appeared to gain a large advantage, with the Red Bull-backed Arden Motorsport driver ultimately finishing fourth.
The stewards looked at the incident and decided to issue Ticktum with a five second time penalty, but with the gap behind to his competitors as it was, the Briton was able to retain his fourth place.
Fewtrell will be angry with the whole affair, and also with the fact that Henrique Chaves found a way passed the Tech 1 Racing driver to take fifth, and despite pressurising the AVF by Adrian Vallés driver until the chequered flag, he was forced to settle for sixth when fourth was definitely on the cards.
Yifei Ye was seventh for Josef Kaufmann Racing ahead of Will Palmer, who made up two places on the opening lap but got no further, and as a result he lost the championship lead to his R-ace GP team-mate Shwartzman.
Gabriel Aubry did not have the same kind of pace that took him to took race victories two weeks ago in Hungary, finishing ninth for Tech 1 Racing, while Zane Goddard finished ahead of fellow Australian Thomas Randle to claim the final point for Arden Motorsport.
Nurburgring Race 1 Result
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