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Bortolotti wins first race at Brno

Mirko Bortolotti continued Red Bull's unbroken streak of Formula 2 victories by winning the third race of the year at Brno today

The reigning Italian Formula 3 champion inherited pole position when Nicola de Marco - who went fastest in qualifying on Friday - broke down prior to the race and had to start from the pitlane.

Having shadowed fellow Red Bull driver Robert Wickens to second place at Valencia, Bortolotti did not waste his opportunity to score his first F2 win.

"At the beginning Mikhail was pushing a lot, but there was only one dry line so a move was quite difficult," said Bortolotti. "I had a good rhythm after three laps and I saw that I had a good gap so I tried to save the tyres a little for the end."

He came under threat from Mikhail Aleshin when the Russian made a terrific start, but Bortolotti held his nerve into Turn 1 and controlled proceedings from there.

Aleshin, another of Red Bull's juniors, was only able to hold on for a couple of laps before slipping back and having to settle for second.

Philipp Eng completed the podium after jumping Henri Karjalainen at a safety car restart - the caution had to be thrown when Wickens, Henry Surtees and Jack Clarke were squeezed into an accident on the run down to Turn 1.

Karjalainen fell behind Carlos Iaconelli and Tobias Hegewald in the early laps of the race, but still finished fourth after Iaconelli and Hegewald each spun out of the place.

Julien Jousse was a quiet fifth, while Armaan Ebrahim just held off a charging Piscopo for sixth at the end. Piscopo had been making his way through the field following a problem before the start that forced him to surrender his sixth place grid slot and start at the back.

Robert Wickens also made a good comeback from the tail of the field following the first lap crash to finish ninth, behind Tom Gladdis, and set the fastest lap at the end.

Jolyon Palmer completed the top 10, just ahead of Alex Brundle, while pole-sitter de Marco made it back up to 12th from his pitlane start.

Pos Driver                            Time
 1. Mirko Bortolotti            42m32.103s
 2. Mikhail Aleshin                 +4.675
 3. Philipp Eng                    +12.330
 4. Henri Karjalainen              +12.613
 5. Julien Jousse                  +17.391
 6. Armaan Ebrahim                 +26.071
 7. Edoardo Piscopo                +26.355
 8. Tom Gladdis                    +34.055
 9. Robert Wickens                 +35.109
10. Jolyon Palmer                  +39.883
11. Alex Brundle                   +40.332
12. Nicola de Marco                +41.372
13. Jason Moore                    +43.459
14. Natacha Gachnang               +49.167
15. Tobias Hegewald                +58.522
16. German Sanchez                  +1 lap
17. Andy Soucek                     +1 lap

Retirements

    Carlos Iaconelli               14 laps
    Jens Hoing                     11 laps
    Milos Pavlovic                  9 laps
    Kazim Vasiliauskas              5 laps
    Pietro Gandolfi                 2 laps
    Henry Surtees                   0 laps
    Jack Clarke                     0 laps
    Sebastian Hohenthal             0 laps


Fastest lap, Wickens 1m49.747s on lap 22

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