Alex Peroni took a dominant victory in the first Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup race around the principality of Monaco for his first victory in the category since Pau last year.
The Australian got a good start into Ste. Devote and was unchallenged from then on, winning by 4.3 s. The victory has elevated the Australian into eighth place in the championship standings as the MP Motorsport driver becomes the sixth different winner in seven races so far in 2018.
Behind Peroni was the battle of the French rookies, with winner last-time out at Silverstone, Charles Milesi holding off R-ace GP team-mate Victor Martins in their race-long battle over second place. They were comfortably clear of the top two in the championship of Ye Yifei and Christian Lundgaard, both of whom drove solid, but low-key races to finish fourth and fifth respectively.
But, it was further back where the drama lay; with first lap contact between Arthur Rougier and Sami Taofik ended in disaster, with the Arden driver sustaining suspension damage, which ended his race on the spot. Meanwhile Rougier lost his front wing, so was forced to pit and lost any hope of a good result around the principality.
Later on, a good battle was brewing between Neil Verhagen and Max Defourny over sixth place, where the Belgian tried an ambitious move on the American at the Nouvelle Chicane, ultimately resulting in Defourny’s front-wing to become damaged. This meant that all Max could do for the final ten minutes was make his car as wide as possible to hang on to a points-paying position.
Ultimately, Verhagen and Max Fewtrell got past the Belgian at ease with nice moves around the outside of Massenet, at which point he was able to feel where the car was struggling and was able to hold his own.
This meant that he positioned his car in a rather awkward way for Lorenzo Colombo. And with the Italian annoyed with how his race had panned out, after being squeezed out at the start by Lundgaard, he had a go at Defourny into Casino Square to ultimately lose out. Thus meaning that Thomas Maxwell was able to not only pass Colombo, but he also dispatched of the ailing Defouny as well.
Afterwards, Defourny was very canny with how he positioned his car, prevented the pack behind to get a run out of Ste. Devote into Beau Rivage and Massenet, so kept ninth place on the line subject to a stewards investigation regarding the incident between himself and Verhagen. The final point went to the American racer Logan Sargeant.
But it was a great win for Peroni who dominated the first race of the weekend in Monaco, just weeks after a double victory around the streets of Pau in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup. He is quickly getting the reputation as a street specialist, and it’s easy to see why.
