Max Fewtrell took over the at the top of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship after securing his fifth victory of the season as pre-race leader Christian Lundgaard suffered an early retirement after contact with Victor Martins at the Hockenheimring.
Starting from pole position, Fewtrell retained the lead into the first turn, and despite pressure from Yifei Ye and an early safety car period, the R-ace GP ace was able to clinch the win by seven-tenths of a second.
Ye was attacked by on the opening turn by Lundgaard, with Martins not too far away, but on the run down to turn two, the Dane cut across the Frenchman, causing a puncture to Lundgaard’s MP Motorsport machine and damaging the front wing of the Martin’s R-ace GP car.
Behind the leading duo, Oscar Piastri took only his second podium finish of the season for Arden Motorsport after coming out on top of some crazy action early on, while Logan Sargeant of R-ace GP’s got the better of JD Motorsport’s Thomas Maxwell to take fourth.
Likewise, Alex Peroni of MP Motorsport was able to finish ahead of Tech 1 Racing’s Neil Verhagen, with the duo having earlier being involved in the scrap for the podium only to finish sixth and seventh.
Another Tech 1 Racing driver, Alexander Smolyar, took eighth ahead of Fortec Motorsport’s Raul Guzman, while Charles Milesi took the final point on offer for R-ace GP despite a mid-race trip across the grass on the exit of turn three. The Frenchman denied Clement Novalak his first point of the season by making a pass on the Josef Kaufmann Racing driver on the final lap.
The early safety car was required when Najiy Razak crashed out on lap two, his third consecutive retirement, while both Lundgaard and Martins retired in the pits following their first lap contact. Also failing to finish the race were Lorenzo Colombo, Axel Matus and Thomas Neubauer.
NEC Success for Ghattas
Doureid Ghattas secured his fifth consecutive Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup victory at the Hockenheimring on Saturday, with the win ensuring the German became the 2018 series champion.
Odds were stacked in the Anders Motorsport drivers favour heading into the weekend, with Ghattas knowing that finishing the race would have been enough for him to take the crown, but he did it in style by taking the victory. He finished sixteenth overall.
R-ace GP’s Gabriel Gandulia took an early lead in the class but lost out to Ghattas, with the Argentine finishing down in third after Phil Hill secured second late on for ScoRace Team, with the duo ending twenty-first and twenty-second overall, ahead of Hill’s team-mate Sharon Scolari.
Hockenheimring Race 1 Result
[table id=3443 /]