Oliver Rowland took his second and Fortec Motorsports third victory of the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series season in dominant fashion by leading from start to finish in the season finale at Jerez.
The Racing Steps Foundation sponsored driver inherited pole position after Roberto Merhi was penalised, and never controlled the race from the front, eventually finishing 7.703s clear of Canadian rookie Nicholas Latifi of Tech 1 Racing.
Latifi, on only his sixth start after joining the series at the Hungaroring in September, overtook William Buller of Arden Motorsport in between turns two and three just after the safety car left the circuit that had been deployed to clear up a crash between Jazeman Jaafar and Matias Lainé.
Pierre Gasly finished fourth behind his Arden Motorsport team-mate Buller despite making a good start to run second behind Rowland, but a botched pit stop from his mechanics saw him drop behind Buller and Latifi.
Sergey Sirotkin finished the race in fifth in the second Fortec Motorsports machine, ahead of Pietro Fantin of International Draco Racing, while Oscar Tunjo of Pons Racing was seventh ahead of Lotus duo Matthieu Vaxiviere and Marlon Stockinger.
Norman Nato held off the challenge of his DAMS team-mate and 2014 series champion Carlos Sainz Jr to secure the final point on offer in tenth, with the new champion failing to score a point all weekend.
Merhi’s race was over early after his car developed a fault during his pit stop whilst running third, with the Zeta Corse driver losing second place in the championship to Gasly as a result, meaning the two Red Bull Junior drivers finished first and second in the final standings.
Jerez Race 2 Result
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
1 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | 42m09.126s |
2 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Tech 1 Racing | +7.703s |
3 | William Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsport | +15.879s |
4 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | +16.608s |
5 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsports | +18.752s |
6 | Pietro Fantin | BRZ | International Draco Racing | +21.269s |
7 | Oscar Tunjo | COL | Pons Racing | +21.730s |
8 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | FRA | Lotus | +22.349s |
9 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | +22.751s |
10 | Norman Nato | FRA | DAMS | +24.573s |
11 | Carlos Sainz Jr | ESP | DAMS | +25.243s |
12 | Beitske Visser | NED | AV Formula | +28.250s |
13 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | +29.809s |
14 | Zoel Amberg | SWI | AV Formula | +30.363s |
15 | Meindert van Buuren | NED | Pons Racing | +31.146s |
RET | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR Racing | 14 Laps |
RET | Matias Lainé | FIN | Strakka Racing | 14 Laps |
RET | Marco Sorensen | DEN | Tech 1 Racing | 8 Laps |
RET | Roberto Merhi | ESP | Zeta Corse | 7 Laps |
RET | Roman Mavlanov | RUS | Zeta Corse | 1 Lap |
RET | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | 0 Laps |