Unlike on Saturday, Max Fewtrell was able to convert his pole position at the Circuit Paul Ricard into the lead, and the Renault Sport Academy star duly delivered his first race victory of the 2018 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship season to assume the advantage in the championship standings.
The R-ace GP racer retained the lead from Yifei Ye at the start, and despite the interruption of the safety car mid-race for a clash between Clement Novalak and Najiy Razak, was able to control the race from the front to win for the second time in his Eurocup career by 0.596 seconds.
Unfortunately, the safety car period saw the undoing of race one winner Logan Sargeant, who was on course for at least a podium finish in third before a gearbox issue saw him dramatically slow, which caused havoc behind him as no one wanted to pass him and possibly get a penalty.
However, it was soon apparent to those following that Sargeant was in trouble, and those behind passed the young American, who dropped out of the race moments later at turn four.
Inheriting that final step on the podium was Christian Lundgaard, with the young Dane getting the better of fellow Renault Sport Academy member Victor Martins, but at least for the Frenchman, he was able to finish fourth, which will make up for some of the disappointment he suffered on Saturday, when a great starting position was ruined by a horror start that saw him finish outside the top ten.
Richard Verschoor finished fifth on the road, but a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage dropped him down to eighth, promoting Oscar Piastri to fifth despite the Australian having an airborne moment as he run across one of the Paul Ricard kerbs whilst battling with Verschoor.
Thomas Maxwell and Alex Peroni were also able to benefit from Verschoor’s penalty to take sixth and seventh, while Neil Verhagen and Max Defourny claimed the final points on offer in ninth and tenth.
Alexander Smolyar was on course for a second consecutive top ten finish after following Verschoor through ahead of Piastri when he had his moment, but the young Russian ground to a halt with three laps remaining, while the final point was set to go to Raul Guzman until the Mexican was hit from behind by Lorenzo Colombo on the penultimate lap, which earned the Italian a grid penalty for the first race of next weekend’s double header at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
But the day, and the championship lead, belonged to Fewtrell, while the opening weekend showed once more just how competitive Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 is. Roll on Monza!
Circuit Paul Ricard Race 2 Result
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