Christian Lundgaard took over at the top of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series standings after winning race one at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.
Starting on the front row, Lundgaard was able to get ahead of polesitter Lorenzo Colombo heading into Les Combes on the opening lap, and despite Oscar Piastri briefly taking the lead on lap two, the Dane was able to reclaim the lead on the following lap before controlling the race until its conclusion.
Piastri was forced to defend his position from Yifei Ye, with the Chinese driver managing to get ahead of the Australian, and despite the best efforts of the Arden Motorsport driver, he was forced to settle for the bottom step of the podium, although it was his first visit to the podium in the category.
Having by far his best performance of the season, and scoring his first points of the year, was Arthur Rougier, with the Fortec Motorsports driver sticking with the leading trio and even attacking Piastri and Ye for a spot on the podium, only for the Frenchman to finish fourth.
Max Fewtrell was the best placed of the R-ace GP drivers in fifth ahead of Colombo, who could not maintain his position at the front of the field despite starting from pole, while his JD Motorsport team-mate Thomas Maxwell was seventh ahead of Richard Verschoor, Logan Sargeant and Charles Milesi.
The race was halted early when Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup competitor Sharon Scolari crashed her ScoRace Team machine at Radillion, while it was Phil Hill of Anders Motorsport who took the honours in that championship, finishing nineteenth overall, while his team-mate Doureis Ghattas and R-ace GP’s Gabriel Gandulia completed the NEC podium.
Lundgaard’s victory propelled the Renault Sport Academy driver to the top of the standings ahead of Ye, although only one point separate them heading into Saturday’s second and final race of the weekend.
Spa-Francorchamps Race 1 Result
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