On Friday evening, Max Fewtrell set the best time in 2:02.531s. The 2017 best rookie lined up ahead of Yifei Ye, Victor Martins (R-ace GP), Logan Sargeant (R-ace GP), Christian Lundgaard and Oscar Piastri (Arden Motorsport).

Starting grid

Max Fewtrell gets it done

Contrary to race one, Max Fewtrell got a great start to take the lead ahead of Yifei Ye. Further back, Logan Sargeant and Christian Lundgaard got the better of Victor Martins.

While the running order at the front of the order went unchanged, Alexander Smolyar (Tech 1 Racing) was on the move. On lap three, the SMP Racing protégé was up to eighth place after overtaking Alex Peroni (MP Motorsport) and Thomas Maxwell (JD Motorsport).

At the end of lap five, contact between Clément Novalak (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Najiy Razak (JD Motorsport) brought out the safety car. During the intervention, Logan Sargeant was stuck in one gear and dropped out of the top three.

At the restart, the leaders held position, while Richard Verschoor (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Alexander Smolyar surprised Oscar Piastri, dropping him to seventh place, but the Russian retired two laps later.

Max Fewtrell went on for the win ahead of Yifei Ye and two fellow members of the Renault Sport Academy, Christian Lundgaard and Victor Martins. Fifth at the chequers, Richard Verschoor was given a five-second penalty for leaving the track limits and gaining an advantage. He dropped down the finishing order behind Oscar Piastri, Thomas Maxwell and Alex Peroni. Ninth place went to Neil Verhagen (Tech 1 Racing), while Max Defourny (MP Motorsport) overtook Charles Milesi (R-ace GP) on the last lap to round out the top ten.

Race 2 - Drivers standings - Teams standings

Quotes

Max Fewtrell (R-ace GP): “It is great to start the season with a nearly perfect first meeting. I was disappointed yesterday, but my second place was still a great result. We got a good start and did what we know how to do best! After the safety car, Yifei was very fast and I couldn’t really break away. I had to push in the last laps to make sure I was safe. Next week at Monza, I hope we will be as strong as this weekend, although it’s a bit more difficult to lead due to the slipstream. Nevertheless, we’re not looking too far ahead and we will take the sessions one at a time.”

Yifei Ye (Josef Kaufmann Racing): “It was a shame to lose the pole position because of a few errors Friday evening. I was able to keep up with Max before the safety car came out. After that, there were only five laps left. I was confident and I was beginning to catch him. Unfortunately, like we saw yesterday, we lose the front end when we follow too closely the car ahead. All the same, I scored a lot of points this weekend. It is a long-term fight for the title and consistency will be the key. I am really confident about our package over the length of the season.”

Christian Lundgaard (MP Motorsport): “It was a bit confusing with Logan Sargeant’s problem. We were going very slow, 30kph and I asked several times if we had permission from the race director to overtake! Yesterday, we suffered with our race pace. It was better today, but we need to really work on qualifying to make up the gap to the R-ace GP cars. This is where we will need to focus our attention at Monza. I am nevertheless confident and I hope we will be as consistent as we have been this weekend. Our goal is to stay in the top five in order to compete for podiums and score a maximum amount of points to take the rookie title.”

*Results subject to confirmation following technical and sporting verifications