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Spa NEC: Norris controls wet Race 1

Lando Norris was dominant in a wet Spa-Francorchamps to take a lights-to-flag win in Race 1 of the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC weekend.

Lando Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing

Lando Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing

Josef Kaufmann Racing

Pietro Peccenini, TS corse
Nicolas Melin, Formula Motorsport
Jehan Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing
Track action
Pietro Peccenini, TS corse
Nerses Isaakyan, AVF by Adrian Valles

Unlike the European Formula 3 race which started behind the safety car, the 2.0 NEC's first race had a standing start despite the rain.

Norris held the lead going into Turn 1 from Dorian Boccolacci but third-place starter Sacha Fenestraz spun in the first corner to drop to 13th at the end of Lap 1.

The field was bunched up soon with the safety car period, after guest driver Ghislain Cordeel crashed out at Les Combes.

But even a restart didn’t deter Josef Kaufmann Racing’s Norris as he took his third win of season beating Boccolacci by a mammoth 8.155s.

The Tech 1 Racing driver fended off a late surge from JD Motorsport’s James Allen, who took his maiden podium, 1.018s off Boccolacci at the finish line.

Both MBM's Alex Gill and AVF's Henrique Chaves made up four places to claim their season’s best-result of fourth and fifth place respectively.

Josef Kaufmann’s Robert Shwartzman and Jehan Daruvala were sixth and seventh, the Indian having dropped places at the start, but able to make up one place by overtaking Julien Falchero.

R-ace GP's Falchero took eighth, having also made up chunk of positions from 13th on the grid.

Guest driver and last weekend's Euroformula Open race winner Antoni Ptak was ninth, the Polish driver surviving a hit from Fenestraz on the run-up to the finish line.

The Tech 1 Racing driver then tussled with teammate Gabriel Aubry to hold on to a top-10 finish.

Race 1 results:

Pos Driver Team Laps  Delay 
Lando Norris Josef Kaufmann Racing 9 25'16.371 
D.Boccolacci Tech 1 Racing 9 8.155
James Allen JD Motorsport 9 9.173
Alex Gill Mark Burdett Motorsport 9 17.678
H.Chaves Jr. AVF 9 21.016
R.Shwartzman Josef Kaufmann Racing 9 22.044
Jehan Daruvala Josef Kaufmann Racing 9 26.069
Julien Falchero R-ace GP 9 31.210
Antoni Ptak Cram Motorsport 9 33.154
10  Sacha Fenestraz Tech 1 Racing 9 33.947
11  Gabriel Aubry Tech 1 Racing 9 34.760
12  F.Habsburg Fortec Motorsports 9 39.053
13  Vasiliy Romanov Fortec Motorsports 9 43.621
14  Bartek Mirecki BM Racing Team 9 46.467
15  Laurents Horr Dutt Motorsport 9 54.627
16  Hugo de Sadeleer Tech 1 Racing 9 55.456
17  Nikita Troitskiy Fortec Motorsports 9 57.299
18  Kasper Larsen KEO Racing 9 1'10.964
19  Finlay Hutchison Mark Burdett Motorsport 9 1'12.719
20  Thomas Neubauer Formula Motorsport 9 1'16.641
21  Nicolas Melin Formula Motorsport 9 1'25.763
22  Julia Pankiewicz AVF 9 1'32.855
23  P.Haezebrouck Formula Motorsport 9 1'36.541
Max Defourny R-ace GP 5  
Nerses Isaakyan AVF 4  
Alexey Korneev JD Motorsport 3  
Will Palmer R-ace GP 0  
Ghislain Cordeel JD Motorsport 0  
Pietro Peccenini TS Corse 0  
Bruno Baptista Fortec Motorsports 0

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Edition

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