Paul Ricard F3.5: Orudzhev holds off Nissany for Saturday win
Egor Orudzhev took his second Formula V8 3.5 victory in as many rounds as the Russian defended successfully from Roy Nissany in the dying stages of Race 1 at Paul Ricard.
Photo by: Formula V8 3.5
The race kicked off with Orudzhev taking the lead, having gotten a better getaway than the front row of Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nissany.
However, Vaxiviere immediately started to put pressure and took advantage of a small mistake from the Russian on Lap 2.
After holding off Orudzhev's counter-attack, Vaxiviere slowly started to pull away from the Arden driver, extending his lead to over a second by Lap 7.
But the SMP Racing driver started to lose power afterwards, allowing Orudzhev to catch back up and slipstream past for the lead.
Vaxiviere couldn't fight back despite another mistake from Orudzhev and was passed by Nissany as well instead.
With the gap stood at around a second at that point, Nissany was all over Orudzhev for the final couple of laps.
The duo narrowly avoided contact when Nissany dived to the inside at the final turn with two laps to go.
Another attempt at the same spot next time around saw Nissany have a better run on the main straight but Orudzhev held him off and went on to cross the line in first.
Rene Binder completed a double Lotus podium in third followed by championship leader Tom Dillmann as Vaxiviere ended up fifth.
Teo Martin Motorsport duo Yu Kanamaru and Beitske Visser finished sixth and ninth respectively, sandwiching Louis Deletraz and Aurelien Panis.
Matevos Isaakyan completed the top 10, despite both him and Panis of them hitting trouble before the start.
While the Frenchman had to start from the pits, Isaakyan stalled and caused a second formation lap.
Brazilian duo Vitor Baptista and Pietro Fittipaldi made contact during the race and ended up the only retirements.
Race 1 results
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Egor Orudzhev | Arden Motorsport | 41m42.225s |
2 | Roy Nissany | Lotus | 0.541 |
3 | Rene Binder | Lotus | 5.647 |
4 | Tom Dillmann | AVF | 6.572 |
5 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | SMP Racing | 18.289 |
6 | Louis Deletraz | Fortec Motorsports | 18.398 |
7 | Yu Kanamaru | Teo Martin Motorsport | 19.218 |
8 | Aurelien Panis | Arden Motorsport | 19.642 |
9 | Beitske Visser | Teo Martin Motorsport | 21.571 |
10 | Matevos Isaakyan | SMP Racing | 23.606 |
11 | Alfonso Celis | AVF | 26.242 |
12 | Artur Janosz | RP Motorsport | 36.470 |
13 | Giuseppe Cipriani | Durango | +1 lap |
DNF | Vitor Baptista | RP Motorsport | +11 laps |
DNF | Pietro Fittipaldi | Fortec Motorsports | +14 laps |
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