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Ghiotto claims maiden Eurocup victory in Spa

by Ant Musker

Photo: Renault Sport/DPPI

Luca Ghiotto resisted strong pressure from Pierre Gasly to hold on and win his first Formula Renault 2.0 race.

The Italian Ghiotto took the lead early on from team mate Antonio Fuoco and had to deal with the distraction of a red flag, two safety cars and the eager Tech 1 of Gasly but stayed calm.

The red flag was deployed after an accident at Eau Rouge involving Gregor Ramsay and Stefan Wackerbauer, thankfully both walked away unharmed from the collision.

At the restart Oscar Tunjo began to fall back down the field as Gasly, Bruno Bonifacio and Jake Dennis came through.

Contact between Andrea Pizzitola and Ignazio D?Agosto left the KTR man in the wall and the safety car came out once more.

Gasly looked to capitalise on the opportunity to get closer to Ghiotto when the safety car went in and the pair battled fiercely for the lead. However Ghiotto defended and managed to bring the car home in first for his maiden victory since arriving in the series from Formula Abarth.

Prema?s Bonifacio overtook pole-man Fuoco to collect his first Eurocup podium. Fuoco ended up fourth while yesterday?s winner Oliver Rowland dropped away from the front late on as Dennis finished in fifth for Fortec.

Tunjo, Esteban Ocon and Nyck de Vries finished sixth, seventh and eighth with Mikko Pakari in ninth ahead of ARTA driver, William Vermont.

Gasly?s consistent points finishes now see him take over the lead of the championship after Matthieu Vaxiviere failed to build on his double race win at Motorland.

Race results
Pos Driver? Team? Time/Gap
1 Luca Ghiotto Prema Powerteam 12 laps in 52:54.663
2 Pierre Gasly Tech 1 Racing +0.582
3 Bruno Bonifacio Prema Powerteam +1.362
4 Antonio Fuoco Prema Powerteam +2.081
5 Jake Dennis Fortec Motorsports +3.272
6 Oscar Tunjo Josef Kaufmann Racing +4.032
7 Esteban Ocon ART Junior Team +4.146
8 Nyck De Vries Koiranen GP +4.785
9 Mikko Pakari Fortec Motorsports +5.688
10 William Vermont ARTA Engineering +9.529
11 Marcos Siebert Jenzer Motorsport +9.890
12 Guilherme Silva Koiranen GP +10.009
13 Victor Franzoni Koiranen GP +10.514
14 Matthieu Vaxiviere Tech 1 Racing +10.610
15 Alex Baron ART Junior Team +11.032
16 Ukyo Sasahara Euronova Racing +11.726
17 Joffrey De Narda ARTA Engineering +13.168
18 Aurelien Panis RC Formula +13.846
19 Konstantin Tereschenko Interwetten.com Racing +14.393
20 Simon Tirman ARTA Engineering +15.244
21 Kevin Jorg Jenzer Motorsport +16.126
22 Yu Kanamaru KTR +16.249
23 Javier Merlo Manor MP Motorsport +16.877
24 Benjamin Bailly RC Formula +17.336
25 Leo Roussel ARTA Engineering +18.208
26 Hans Villemi Atech Reid GP +18.517
27 Alexander Albon KTR +19.433
28 Andrea Pizzitola ART Junior Team +19.998
29 Francisco Amado Euronova Racing +22.923
30 Levin Amweg Jenzer Motorsport +23.123
31 Alex Bosak Atech Reid GP +25.156
32 Alejandro Abogado Interwetten.com Racing +25.809
33 Oliver Rowland Manor MP Motorsport +1 Lap
Not classified
  Ignazio D’Agosto KTR 7 laps
  Egor Orudzhev Tech 1 Racing 6 laps
  Gustav Malja Josef Kaufmann Racing 3 laps
  Steijn Schothorst Josef Kaufmann Racing 2 laps
  Gregor Ramsay Euronova Racing 1 lap
  StefanWackerbauer Interwetten.com Racing 1 lap