Egor Orudzhev clinched his fourth victory of the season in race two at the Circuito de Jerez, but Louis Deletraz’s second place moved him to the head of the championship battle.
Orudzhev made a outstanding start from fifth on the grid to lead into the first turn ahead of Deletraz, and withstood the pressure from the Swiss driver to take the chequered flag first.
The Russian made an earlier pit stop than his rival and when Deletraz made his stop three laps later, Orudzhev had a 2.4 second advantage, and despite the gap closing slightly, the Arden Motorsport became the first four-time winner of 2016.
Matthieu Vaxiviere was a distant third for his second podium finish of the weekend for SMP Racing, with Jack Aitken holding off the challenge of Beitske Visser and Matevos Isaakyan for fourth.
Aitken made a better start than he did on Saturday but the RP Motorsport driver still found himself shuffled down the order, while Visser equalled her career best finish for Teo Martin Motorsport, just ahead of race one winner Isaakyan.
Despite crashing in qualifying and starting on the back row, Rene Binder secured seventh place for Lotus, helped by a late visit to the pit lane for his mandatory stop, while pre-race championship leader Tom Dillmann could only progress to eighth having started thirteenth on the grid.
The four points Dillmann scored was not enough for the Frenchman to retain the championship leader, with the AVF by Adrian Vallés driver now a point behind Deletraz with two races of the season remaining, next weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Alfonso Celis Jr took ninth in the second AVF machine, while Yu Kanamaru claimed the final point on offer in tenth for Teo Martin Motorsport.
Aurélien Panis saw his championship challenge take a blow as the Arden Motorsport driver was the races sole retirement, pulling off the track on lap five with a mechanical issue, while stalling on the grid destroyed Roy Nissany’s afternoon for the second Lotus driver, ending over a minute down in fourteenth.
Circuito de Jerez Race 2 Result
[table id=1661 /]
