After fifth place yesterday, today Louis Delétraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing) defended his pole position from start till finish. Until the end however, he had to defend himself against three tough pursuers. The toughest, Kevin Jörg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) missed the podium by finishing fourth. Saturday’s winner Dries Vanthoor finished 16th.
Louis Delétraz, Callan O’Keeffe (Fortec Motorsports), Ukyo Sasahara (ART Junior Team) and Kevin Jörg raced in the order of their starting places. These four pushed each other during the full 25 minutes of the race. No successful attacks and no overtaking took place, so the order remained the same until the end of the race.
Behind them Harrison Scott (AVF) passed Max Defourny (ART Junior Team) right at the start. During the race Defourny lost further ground and both Dennis Olsen (Manor MP Motorsport) who finished sixth and Jehan Daruvala (Fortec Motorsports) passed him. Finishing seventh it was the Force India Junior who took the Rookie trophee. Defourny finished eighth before Darius Oskoui (Junior ART Team) and Colin Noble (MGR Motorsport).
Dries Vanthoor (Josef Kaufmann Racing), who took his first career victory yesterday, had to live with 16th place because of a jumpstart and therefor the drive-through penalty. Henrique Chaves (AVF) was tenth but had to retire with technical problems. The same went for Kevin Kleveros (Prizma Motorsport) and Alex Gill (Fortec Motorsports), whose car even went on strike on the formation lap.
Louis Delétraz leads the championship before the next weekend at the Nürburgring from 18 till 20 September, with 53 points ahead of Kevin Jörg and 150 points are still up for grabs. Max Defourny remains best rookie in fifth place overall.
1. Louis Deletraz (#14) Josef Kaufmann Racing: « I had a good start and a good race. I was missing a bit of speed but could just keep Callan (O’Keeffe) behind me. I had to do my laps as best as possible to stay in first. I am happy and now comfortable in the lead of the championship with 5 more races to go. »
2. Callan O’Keeffe (#7) Fortec Motorsports: « The pace was good and I am back where I want to be. It is a bit frustrating here as overtaking is very difficult. I tried to force some errors on Louis (Deletraz) but he wasn’t making any. Next race I hope to continue this way. I am feeling good and of course happy to be back on the podium for my best finish this season. »
3. Ukyo Sasahara (#9) ART Junior Team: « I had four new tyres and just had to follow Deletraz and O’Keeffe. I had a good start but lost to Kevin Jörg but could reclaim third place. I came close to O’Keeffe but there was just no opportunity to overtake. Third was the best possible position to finish this race. »
7. Best Rookie Jehan Darvula (#6) Fortec Motorsports: « Qualifying was not great. I got my best time taken away as I did cross the tracklimits. But I had a good start and in turn four could overtake three cars. Dennis Olsen passed me, I passed him and he me again so he finished just in front of me. In the race I tried to get into a good race rythm and I was happy with my race pace. »
Next race: 18 – 20 September Nürburgring
Press release Formula Renault 2.0 NEC
]]>
