Roy Nissany made it seven different winners in nine races as he secured his maiden Formula V8 3.5 triumph in the opening race at Silverstone despite a collision with Egor Orudzhev that saw both drivers spin at Stowe.
The start was delayed when Louis Deletraz stalled as he approached the grid, leaving the Swiss Fortec Motorsports driver to lose his fifth place to start from the pit lane, but once the race got underway, Orudzhev made a superior start to that of pole sitter Matthieu Vaxiviere, and assumed the lead into the first corner ahead of Nissany.
The two at the front left the rest behind while battling hard for the lead, and had built up a lead of more than ten seconds to the chasing pack when they came to blows.
Unfortunately as the Lotus driver attempted a move at the end of the Hanger Straight on lap 16, the duo collided and spun at Stowe Corner, with Arden Motorsport’s Orudzhev coming off worse.
Such was the gap Nissany was still able to maintain the lead from the chasing pack, with Orudzhev coming back onto the track amid the battle for third position that was being fought by Vaxiviere, Rene Binder and Tom Dillmann before being shuffled to seventh. The Russian continued for one more lap before pulling into the pit lane to retire.
The incident is under review from the stewards, who will talk to both drivers after the end of the race to make a decision whether the incident requires any kind of punishment for either driver.
Vaxiviere robustly defended his third position in the early stages from Dillmann before the AVF driver dropped into the clutches of Binder, with the second Lotus driver moving ahead of the championship leader into fourth position, and then closing down the gap to Vaxiviere.
With Orudzhev out of the race, the battle was now for second, and despite almost constant pressure from Binder, Vaxiviere held on for second, ahead of Binder and Dillmann.
Aurélien Panis drove a quiet race for Arden Motorsport to finish fifth ahead of Pietro Fittipaldi, who secured his best finish of the season so far for Fortec Motorsports, with Yu Kanamaru seventh for Teo Martin Motorsport.
Vitor Baptista was eighth for RP Motorsport, with Beitske Visser of Teo Martin Motorsport and the delayed Deletraz completing the point’s scorers.
Silverstone Race 1 Result
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