Matthieu Vaxiviere took his third victory of the season in race two at the Red Bull Ring ahead of Oliver Rowland as the top two showed once again they are the class of the field in 2015.
Vaxiviere converted his pole position into a first corner lead, and was never headed despite the concerted effort of Rowland throughout, with the duo exchanging fastest laps before finishing 4.151s apart as Rowland was forced to settle for second.
Such was the domination of Lotus driver Vaxiviere and Fortec Motorsports Rowland, third placed Roy Nissany of Tech 1 Racing completed the podium, 20.244s back from the race win.
Despite the gap, Nissany was one of the stars of the race, with the un-fancied Israeli converting his strong qualifying performance into a podium finish.
Fourth went to Brazilian Pietro Fantin of International Draco Racing, who made a late race pass on DAMS driver Nyck de Vries heading into turn two. Marlon Stockinger made a points-finishing return to Formula Renault 3.5 in sixth in the second Lotus, holding off the close advances of Strakka Racing’s Gustav Malja until the chequered flag.
For the second race in a row, Tom Dillmann made a number of places from his starting position, finishing eighth for Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, ahead of Jazeman Jaafar, who’s disappointing weekend for Fortec Motorsports ended with only two points for ninth.
Beitske Visser secured her second points finish of the season with tenth for AVF, catching and passing Bruno Bonifacio of International Draco Racing for the spot.
Meindert van Buuren was running inside the top five early in the race before spinning at the final corner moments after being passed by Fantin, with the Pons Racing driver dropping out the race a few laps later as the car crawled into the pit lane.
It ended a disappointing day for the Pons Racing team, whose second driver Roberto Merhi was excluded from the race following the post-race collision with Nicholas Latifi in race one.
Dean Stoneman, who had finished runner-up for DAMS in race one earlier in the day, could not match his performance in race two, colliding with Arden Motorsport’s Latifi on the second lap that saw both drivers retiring.
Red Bull Ring Race 2 Result
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