FR 3.5: Dominant Sainz Blitzes Race Two At Monza

After an electrical problem that prevented him from getting off the line in race one, Carlos Sainz Jr. made good on his second pole position of the weekend in race two with a dominant victory, his first in Formula Renault 3.5.  The result was never in doubt after the first corner, with fellow-front row starter Marlon Stockinger suffering from wheel-spin that forced him to go defensive from a fast-starting Sergey Sirotkin, the Russian up from sixth on the grid. The top three remained unchanged thereafter, with Sainz extending his lead lap-on-lap to an eventual 10.8 seconds, drawing the Spaniard level with race one winner Will Stevens in the title standings in the process.

Carlos Sainz Jr. dominated from the outset. (Credit: Carlos Sainz Jr.)

It was a good race too for the rookies, as Draco Racing’s Luca Ghiotti led home Eurocup champion and now joint championship leader Pierre Gasly in fifth, ahead of a combative Nikolay Martsenko, the Comtec man stealing sixth from Jazeman Jaafar on the final lap with a brave pass into the second chicance after spending much of the race attempting to overtake Pietro Fantin.

Fantin just held on to eighth after a committed lunge from Roberto Merhi failed to pay off, the Spaniard failing to match his race one podium on his return to single-seaters following two trying seasons in the DTM, while Oliver Rowland picked up tenth with a strong drive from the pitlane after stalling on the dummy grid, capped with an audacious move around the outside of Zoel Amberg at Ascari.

As for Stevens, the Caterham youngster suffered a nightmare race. Starting a lowly 14^th after a difficult qualifying, Stevens was embroiled in a battle royale with fellow Brit Will Buller on the run down to the Rettifilio chicane, when the two cars came into wheel-to-wheel contact, tipping the Strakka man into the gravel and damaging the front-wing endplate on Buller’s Arden machine. Even around Monza, which is famed for its long straights and low requirements on downforce, Buller was a sitting duck thereafter and eventually pulled into retirement having plummeted out of the reach of the points.

Elsewhere, Tech1 Racing’s efforts to get Marco Sorensen onto the grid following his frightening race one flip came to naught as the Dane was forced into an early retirement.