Louis Deletraz took advantage of early troubles for pole sitter Egor Orudzhev to secure the first ever victory in the new Formula V8 3.5 era at Motorland Aragon on Saturday.
Deletraz started on the front row alongside Orudzhev, but the Russian driver made a mistake in the early corners of the race, running wide and damaging his car after hitting the kerbs while attempting to rejoin the racetrack, causing the Arden Motorsport driver to retire.
Fortec Motorsports’ Deletraz stayed out of trouble to assume the lead that he never came close to relinquishing, ultimately winning the season opener by 11.842s from Frenchman Matthieu Vaxiviere, who drove a strong race himself for SMP Racing, with another Frenchman Tom Dillmann completing the podium for AVF.
Rene Binder secured a strong fourth for Lotus ahead of Aurélien Panis’ Arden machine, while Alfonso Celis Jr secured sixth in the second AVF entry after the Mexican made a good start but was running as high as third before a mistake a few laps from the end allowed team-mate Dillmann, Binder and Panis all through.
Roy Nissany took seventh in the second Lotus ahead of RP Motorsport’s Vitor Baptista, with the 2015 EuroFormula Open champion finishing just ahead of Teo Martin Motorsport’s Beitske Visser and RP team-mate Johnny Cecotto Jr.
Visser’s race was compromised early after a clash with team-mate Yu Kanamaru that saw the Dutch female driver spun around while her Japanese team-mate was forced to retire from the race.
Motorland Aragon Race 1 Result
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