Baguette clinches title as Pic wins race

From seventh on the grid, the Belgian survived a wobbly start to proceedings in which he dropped two positions, to clinch the Formula Renault 3.5 series title by virtue of a solid fifth place finish for Draco.

"I took a good start, but changing from first to second gear I got neutral," said a satisfied Baguette. "I lost several positions, and knew then that I would really have to push and do some overtaking. The team helped with a good pitstop, and thanks to some retirements I could finish in P5.

"It has been a very stressful weekend, with lots of pressure, so it's good to be able to go to [the final at] Motorland and enjoy myself. I've just had one clutch failure in the opening round at Barcelona, and after that I have finished all my races. My main aim now is F1, but we'll have to see what happens."

The race at the front was largely determined in the seconds following the start. From the inside of the front row, Pic found superior traction away from the line to power past Hartley's pole position car.

The Tech 1 duo had an agreed strategy that whichever driver was leading would have the advantage of taking a later pitstop. Hartley was duly brought in from his pursuit of Pic on lap eight, while Pic was afforded an extra two laps before changing his front tyres. The Renault Development driver returned to the track with Hartley's Red Bull car safely in his mirrors, and thereafter had a clean run to his second victory of the season.

Comtec's Jon Lancaster had appeared set for a safe third place following a determined start. The Leeds driver had been the biggest threat to the Tech 1 pair over the early laps, but lost ground, if not track position, by opting to delay his pitstop until lap 12.

Already smarting over the race director's decision to award him a 10s penalty in Saturday's race, Lancaster was saddled with more misery when his car ground to a halt at Turn 5 on lap 18.

Instead, it was Fairuz Fauzy who picked up third place and his second podium of the weekend. P1's James Walker put the disappointment of retiring with overheating in race one behind him to take fourth place, within a second of the Mofaz Fortec car at the chequered flag. Walker's points move the Jersey racer ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in the drivers' standings. The Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver benefited from the late race retirement of Carlin team-mate Oliver Turvey to take sixth.

Pos  Driver                Team                Time/Gap
 1.  Charles Pic           Tech 1            45m59.547s
 2.  Brendon Hartley       Tech 1              + 0.695s
 3.  Fairuz Fauzy          Fortec             + 13.947s
 4.  James Walker          P1                 + 14.830s
 5.  Bertrand Baguette     Draco              + 22.491s
 6.  Jaime Alguersuari     Carlin             + 26.508s
 7.  Marco Barba           Draco              + 36.660s
 8.  John Martin           Comtec             + 42.947s
 9.  Daniil Move           P1                 + 43.299s
10.  Chris van der Drift   Epsilon Euskadi    + 45.810s
11.  Anton Nebylitskiy     SG                 + 48.475s
12.  Sten Pentus           Fortec             + 48.635s
13.  Keisuke Kunimoto      Epsilon Euskadi    + 49.558s
14.  Julian Leal           Prema              + 53.261s
15.  Mihai Marinescu       Interwetten        + 54.534s
16.  Salvador Duran        Interwetten        + 58.141s
17.  Federico Leo          Pons             + 1m15.567s

Retirements:

     Jon Lancaster         Comtec          18 laps
     Oliver Turvey         Carlin          16 laps
     Pasquale di Sabatino  RC              16 laps
     Marcos Martinez       Pons            15 laps
     Filip Salaquarda      Prema           9 laps
     Guillaume Moreau      SG              6 laps