FV8 3.5: Vaxiviere defeats Deletraz in race one

SMP Racing's Matthieu Vaxiviere held off Louis Deletraz to score his second victory of the season in the opening Formula V8 3.5 race of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

Deletraz lost his pole advantage away from the lights, and the Fortec racer was passed by both front row starter Vaxiviere and Egor Orudzhev on the uphill run to Turn 1.

Swiss racer Deletraz was also made to fight to hold onto his third spot from AVF twins Tom Dillmann and Alfonso Celis Jr. He eventually settled down and found his pace, attempting a late dive down the inside into the tight, right-hand, Turn 3 on lap three that resulted in minor contact with Orudzhev.

After running wheel to wheel, Deletraz finally secured the place by driving around the outside of the Arden racer at the downhill left Turn 4.

Vaxiviere enjoyed a 3.5s advantage at the time of the move, and resisted the temptation to use his DRS allocation over the following laps as Deletraz swiftly closed to within half a second.

"I am happy for myself and the team that we have this result," said Vaxiviere, whose consistently strong qualifying pace this season has been neutered by high tire degradation in races. "We had the win in Spa, but that was a race where others had some problems, this feels like a real win. Louis was quicker than me, but I was also managing the gap by saving my DRS.

"After the safety car late in the race I could use DRS once a lap for three consecutive laps, and then twice on the last lap."

After dropping behind championship leader Dillmann to fourth, Orudzhev pitted to retire on lap nine. Dillmann's AVF car entered anti-stall mode at the start, but after losing two positions the Frenchman recovered to score a seventh podium of the season.

Force India Friday driver Alfonso Celis Jr claimed fourth place in the second AVF entry ahead of Aurelien Panis, although the Mexican is under investigation for a wheel-to-wheel maneuver with Rene Binder while defending his position.

Home driver Binder appeared to be squeezed onto the grass in the incident, and his Charouz-run Lotus machine subsequently faltered on the pit straight, possibly as a result of grass in the car's sidepods.

A safety car period six laps from the finish was required to allow marshals to move Binder's stranded car behind the pit wall.

Binder's teammate Roy Nissany used the congested restart at Rauch to steal sixth from Yu Kanamaru's Teo Martin Motorsport entry.

Series returnee and factory Audi sportscar racer Marco Bonanomi demonstrated much improved pace over his practice form and ended the afternoon in ninth for RP Motorsport.

Dillmann leads the standings with 171 points, 34 clear of Deletraz in second. Roy Nissany holds third at 132, while Matthieu Vaxiviere's victory propels him to fourth, equal on 122 points with Panis.

RACE ONE RESULTS:

Originally on Autosport.com