Aurélien Panis secured his second Formula V8 3.5 victory of the season during Sunday’s second race at the Red Bull Ring to move himself back into championship contention, having taken a fifth place finish in Saturday’s opener.
The Arden Motorsport driver added to his earlier victory at Motorland Aragon in April with a great strategy call in Austria, and returned to the podium for the first time since finishing third in race four of the season at the Hungaroring.
Panis was running in fourth place ahead of the pit stops behind Matevos Isaakyan, Louis Deletraz and Matthieu Vaxiviere, but gambled on an early visit to the pit lane that paid dividends when he emerged at the end of the pit stop cycle at the front of the field, and although he found himself being closed down by championship leader Tom Dillmann in the closing laps, he held on for victory.
“It has been a fantastic race, I’m really happy with that,” revealed Panis on formulav8.com. “The team found a fantastic strategy with an early pit-stop and I’ve been able to have a good pace after the pit.
“It helped me to overtake the cars in front, but already at the start I gained one position. A big thank to all Arden Motorsport staff.”
