Shwartzman withstands Defourny challenge to win Pau opener

After starting on pole position, Robert Shwartzman led every lap at Pau to clinch his third victory of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship season.

The victory ensured R-ace GP’s run of race victories extended to five in a row at the beginning of the season, with Shwartzman holding off the race long challenge of team-mate Max Defourny, ending 0.592 seconds clear at the chequered flag.

Defourny himself withstood a first corner attack from Gabriel Aubry to take his best result of the season so far, while the Tech 1 Racing driver dropped back from the Belgian but was able to keep Will Palmer behind him to claim the final spot on the podium.

Australian racer Alex Peroni finished where he started in fifth for Fortec Motorsports, with Sacha Fenestraz just behind him in sixth for Josef Kaufmann Racing.

Max Fewtrell was the best of the rookies in eighth for Tech 1 Racing ahead of Yifei Ye, while Raul Guzman and Daniel Ticktum completed the top ten.

The race was safety car free but not without incidents, with Sun Yue Yang, Henrique Chaves, Ghislain Cordeel and Jean Baptiste Simmenauer all retiring after hitting the barriers.

Red Bull Junior Neil Verhagen failed to take the start when his MP Motorsport car stalled on the way to the line, necessitating an additional formation lap while they cleared his car away, which reduced the race distance from 25 minutes to 23 as a result.

Pau Race 1 Result