FR3.5: Rowland stretches lead with victory

Oliver Rowland claimed a trouble-free sixth victory of the season and eighth consecutive Formula Renault 3.5 podium in the opening race at the Nurburgring on Saturday.

The Racing Steps-backed driver led every lap from pole position, and set fastest lap, to stretch his lead in the drivers' standings over Matthieu Vaxiviere to 49 points – almost the equivalent of two victories.

"It is still a little too early to think about the title," said Rowland. "All it takes is two bad races and for Matthieu to win a couple and it's everything's equal again.

"Fortec have given me a really good car over one lap, along with Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, this is where we have been strongest."

McLaren junior driver Nyck de Vries made a bold charge away from the lights to grab second place from his starting position of fourth. The DAMS driver matched Rowland's lap times for much of the race, but was unable to stage a passing attempt on his former karting teammate.

De Vries had to settle for the runner-up position, 1.2 seconds in arrears, but was comfortably ahead of a tight battle for third between Rowland's Fortec teammate Jazeman Jaafar and title contender Vaxiviere.

Lotus Formula 1 junior driver Vaxiviere left it late in the race before committing to an overtaking manoeuvre, with a late outbraking attempt on the inside at Turn 1 two laps from home. The black and gold car fleetingly gained the place before running wide on the exit, allowing Jaafar to cut back and reclaim his podium position.

Jaafar's result ends a run of poor reliability and misfortune, and moves the third-year FR3.5 racer ahead of Dean Stoneman into third in the overall drivers' standings. Red Bull junior Stoneman sustained his second left-rear opening lap puncture in seven days, after contact with Roy Nissany.

Nissany also stopped at the completion of lap one to take on a replacement front wing, but both men would be early retirements.

A late red flag in qualifying was a contributing factor to Arden's drivers starting from a relatively lowly 16th and 17th. Hungaroring victor Egor Orudzhev provided some entertainment by clawing his way through the field into ninth, but teammate Nicholas Latifi spun out at Turn 1 on lap nine in a failed bid to wrest 11th from Alfonso Celis Jr.

In a bizarre incident, Draco driver Bruno Bonifacio followed Latifi into the Turn 1 gravel when the corner was apparently under yellow flags. The safety car was called out while the two cars were extricated, but Rowland shrugged off losing a 2.5s lead to make a perfect restart.

Tom Dillmann and front row starter Tio Ellinas lost out in the lap one first corner scrum and finished in fifth and sixth.

Silverstone winner Ellinas made a slightly slow initial getaway, allowing de Vries to squeeze alongside, first by the pitwall and then on the grass verge, and steal the position.

RESULTS - 23 LAPS:

Originally on Autosport.com