Pentus scores Aragon win for Fortec

Entering his second season in the category, Pentus gave notice of his potential by setting the fastest time in pre-season testing at the Spanish venue, as well as during Friday's free practice.

The Fortec driver achieved a comfortable, eight second winning margin over Renault Formula 1 reserve driver Jan Charouz.

P1 Motorsport's Charouz made an excellent start from the second row to lead the field into the first corner. The Czech opted for an early pit call on lap six, in contrast to Pentus who remained out for a further six laps before making his mandatory pit visit.

The 28-year-old resumed without having relinquished his lead, and pulled clear of Charouz at the rate of almost a second a lap over the race's final phase.

Pole position holder Daniel Ricciardo was a distant third for Tech 1, but the Australian's second consecutive podium hands him the championship lead heading into round two at Spa-Francorchamps.

Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup graduates Nathanael Berthon and Albert Costa enjoyed a closely fought battle for fourth position.

Reigning Eurocup champion Costa benefited from a chaotic opening lap to climb eight places over his 12th placed grid slot. Berthon relieved his former Epsilon Euskadi team-mate of the position with ten laps remaining.

Fifth-placed qualifier Federico Leo completed the top-six for Pons Racing.

Race one victor Mikhail Aleshin was involved in an incident on the opening lap, dropping the Carlin driver down to 22nd. The Russian recovered to ninth place, hauling in British Formula 3 runner-up Walter Grubmuller with two laps remaining.

Pos Driver                   Team                Time/Gap
 1. Sten Pentus              Fortec            46m37.629s
 2. Jan Charouz              P1               +    8.618s
 3. Daniel Ricciardo         Tech 1           +   13.173s
 4. Nathanael Berthon        Draco            +   22.602s
 5. Albert Costa             Epsilon          +   32.905s
 6. Federico Leo             Pons             +   33.410s
 7. Brendon Hartley          Tech 1           +   34.369s
 8. Daniil Move              Junior Lotus     +   35.080s
 9. Mikhail Aleshin          Carlin           +   40.590s
10. Walter Grubmüller        P1               +   42.904s
11. Nelson Panciatici        Junior Lotus     +   47.699s
12. Victor Garcia            KMP              +   48.604s
13. Jake Rosenzweig          Carlin           +   50.898s
14. Stefano Coletti          Comtec           +   51.523s
15. Keisuke Kunimoto         Epsilon          +   52.786s
16. Bruno Méndez             FHV              + 1m14.570s
17. Sergio Canamasas         FHV              + 1m28.270s

Not classified

    Greg Mansell             Comtec              22  laps
    Julian Leal              Draco               19  laps
    Filip Salaquarda         ISR                 19  laps
    Daniel Zampieri          Pons                16  laps
    Anton Nebylitskiy        KMP                  8  laps
    Esteban Guerrieri        ISR                  6  laps
    Jon Lancaster            Fortec               2  laps