Marco Sorensen took his first Formula Renault 3.5 win of the season in dominant style at Spielberg.
The Danish driver controlled the race from start to finish, and comfortably dealt with two restarts after safety car periods to take a four-second victory ahead of Nigel Melker.
Melker, who was unable to judge when Sorensen would restart on both occasions and fell back, made relatively easy work of pulling away from Kevin Magnussen, who retook the championship lead with a lonely third place after being passed by Melker on the opening lap.
Fourth-placed Will Stevens was the closest of Magnussen’s title chasers, as Stoffel Vandoorne and Antonio Felix da Costa had a day to forget.
Vandoorne was lucky to start the race after his car developed a water leak before the start, but after getting barged down the order in the early laps he was eventually forced to retire.
Da Costa at least made it to the finish, but he struggled for pace throughout the 33 laps and came home a distant seventh.
Things could have got even worse for the Red Bull junior in the closing laps, as Sorensen’s Lotus (Charouz) team-mate Marlon Stockinger was closing on da Costa towards the end of the race. However, Stockinger’s progress was halted when the lapped car of Christopher Zanella inexplicably lunged down the inside of him into Turn 1, and then aggressively blocked him on the run to Turn 2.
Zanella received a 10-second penalty for exceeding track limits after the incident, but that did little to help Stockinger close back up to da Costa.
Results - 33 laps:Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Marco Sorensen Lotus 46m36.415s 2. Nigel Melker Tech 1 +4.420s 3. Kevin Magnussen DAMS +9.065s 4. Will Stevens P1/Strakka +14.629s 5. Arthur Pic AV +17.511s 6. Will Buller Zeta Corse +20.107s 7. Antonio Felix da Costa Arden Caterham +21.411s 8. Marlon Stockinger Lotus +25.752s 9. Andre Negrao Draco +27.269s10. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin +28.190s11. Zoel Amberg Pons +34.231s12. Lucas Foresti Comtec +39.229s13. Nico Muller Draco +42.355s14. Daniil Move Comtec +56.612s15. Yann Cunha AV +1m01.802s16. Christopher Zanella ISR +1 lapRetirements: Matias Laine P1/Strakka 15 laps Sergey Sirotkin ISR 11 laps Norman Nato DAMS 11 laps Carlos Huertas Carlin 11 laps Stoffel Vandoorne Fortec 11 laps Riccardo Agostini Zeta Corse 8 laps Pietro Fantin Arden Caterham 0 laps Mikhail Aleshin Tech 1 0 laps Nikolay Martsenko Pons 0 laps
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