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Hungaroring FR3.5: Nico Muller dominates, Kevin Magnussen second

Nico Muller took a dominant victory in the opening Formula Renault 3.5 race of the weekend at the Hungaroring

The Draco driver capitalised on an error from his race-leading team-mate Andre Negrao on lap 10 to seize the top spot and go on to take his second victory of the season.

With clear track, the Monaco Grand Prix support race winner was able to extend his lead by as much as five seconds a lap as the field fought to be best of the rest behind him.

In the end, that honour went to championship leader Kevin Magnussen, who put on a remarkable charge from 16th on the grid to take second.

All the weekend's action as it happens with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live

The McLaren junior was up to eighth - and on the tail of title rival Stoffel Vandoorne - after just two racing laps following a safety car start, and from there he methodically picked his way through the rest of the runners to climb to second place.

Vandoorne was able to follow him through the field for a while after the two swapped places, but Magnussen's quick work of getting past Negrao, Sergey Sirotkin and Will Stevens proved decisive in creating a gap back to his main rival.

Sirotkin also found a way past Negrao to take the final spot on the podium, while Vandoorne managed to climb to fourth having started 11th.

Polesitter Negrao's race ended in disappointment, as he spun out of fifth place at the end of the penultimate lap having battled electrical gremlins for much of the race.

That handed a top five finish to Mikhail Aleshin, who had been spun out of third early on when he was tagged by Antonio Felix da Costa at Turn 5 on the first racing lap.

Da Costa, who had started fourth, lost any hope of a good result in the collision, and he was forced to retire a few corners later with damage to the front left of his car.

Race 1 - 22 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Nico Muller             Draco            47m59.721s
 2.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS               +26.200s
 3.  Sergey Sirotkin         ISR                +30.078s
 4.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec             +31.265s
 5.  Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1             +34.482s
 6.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1             +37.447s
 7.  Carlos Sainz Jr         Zeta Corse         +38.828s
 8.  Will Stevens            P1/Strakka         +50.125s
 9.  Arthur Pic              AV                 +51.440s
10.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka         +58.962s
11.  Nikolay Martsenko       Pons               +59.787s
12.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus            +1m01.575s
13.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus            +1m05.320s
14.  Lucas Foresti           Comtec           +1m16.056s
15.  Norman Nato             DAMS             +1m18.318s
16.  Oliver Webb             Fortec           +1m24.834s
17.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin           +1m42.507s
18.  Daniil Move             Comtec           +1m47.406s
19.  Zoel Amberg             Pons             +1m52.973s
20.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin           +1m54.582s
21.  Andre Negrao            Draco               +2 laps

Retirements:

     Yann Cunha              AV                  17 laps
     Christopher Zanella     ISR                 12 laps
     Will Buller             Zeta Corse           6 laps
     Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham       5 laps
     Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham       5 laps

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