Stevens wins in Jerez, Sainz becomes champion

Will Stevens held off the spirited challenge of Oliver Rowland to take his second victory of 2014, while Carlos Sainz Jr was crowned 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion.

Roberto Merhi’s first lap retirement after being the innocent party in a clash between Marlon Stockinger and William Buller meant that Sainz took the title. Lotus driver Stockinger and Arden Motorsport’s Buller banged wheels heading into turn one, and the Briton was knocked into Merhi’s Zeta Corse car, taking them both into the gravel trap and into retirement.

Stevens and Rowland were clean away at the front, and were locked in a race long battle for the victory that Strakka Racing driver Stevens ultimately won.

Rowland forced Stevens to defend into the chicane and final corner on the last lap but could not make the move stick around the outside, and ultimately lost the race by 0.078s, while Rowland lead home his Fortec Motorsports team-mate Sergey Sirotkin to complete the podium finishers.

Matthieu Vaxiviere had a lonely race in fourth place for Lotus, ahead of the impressive Beitske Visser, who had by far her best race of the season for AV Formula, and kept Pierre Gasly of Arden Motorsport behind her for the duration of the race.

Behind Gasly was Meindert van Buuren of Pons Racing in seventh ahead of Norman Nato of DAMS, who got the better of team-mate Sainz Jr who initially finished ninth but was penalised post-race for causing a collision with the second Pons Racing machine of Oscar Tunjo, with the twenty-five second penalty relegating the newly crowned champion to fifteenth.

Marco Sorensen therefore inherited ninth place for Tech 1 Racing, with Matias Lainé claiming the final point on offer in tenth for Strakka Racing.

Jerez Race 1 Result