Aleshin takes lights to flag win at Spa

The only man able to live with the Russian's pace was Tech 1 Racing's Brendon Hartley, but an enthralling battle for the lead ended when the Kiwi's machine ground to a halt on lap 16.

Having been demoted from second place by Hartley into the Bus Stop chicane on lap three, Sten Pentus recovered his position following Hartley's retirement. The Estonian was left to a lonely run to second position, 6.1 seconds adrift of the winner.

"Brendon was very quick, quicker than I was," said Aleshin. "I had a temperature of 38.5 this morning, so it was difficult as I was really not feeling well and during the moments when he was really close I needed to concentrate at 100 per cent. I am very happy with the job that the team did and also that I didn't make any mistakes during the race."

A dramatic battle for third provided the race's highlight over the closing laps. Two seconds covered third to seventh at the chequered flag, with Stefano Coletti fighting off spirited attacks from Anton Nebylitskiy and Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion Albert Costa to seal the position.

"I think I want to be sick like [Mikhail], if it makes you that quick," said Coletti. "I had a huge crash here in GP2 last year, and this is good for my self-confidence as people were beginning to say my [drop-off] in results was down to the crash.

"It was a crazy last two laps. I had a big problem on the left-rear, and that's why my pace was slowing through the race. Unfortunately, I made two mistakes which allowed first Nebylitskiy, and then Costa to get close. It was really on the limit, but that's what you have to do if you want to finish on the podium."

On his first appearance in the Ardennes, Jon Lancaster climbed from 11th on the grid to snatch fifth place from Nebylitskiy on a manic last lap.

Draco's Nathanael Berthon failed to deliver on his front row start. The Frenchman ran wide on the exit of the La Source hairpin away from the lights, and immediately lost out to Pentus and Hartley.

While Aleshin led a four-car break away from the front, Berthon's day unravelled further when he was tipped into a spin by Nebylitskiy on the turn-in to La Source on lap three. During this phase of the race, Hartley was by some margin the fastest man on track, pulling away from Pentus at a second a lap and closing to within 0.6s of Aleshin.

In addition to its anguish over Hartley's failure to finish, Tech 1 Racing has also dropped to second in the drivers' standings. Following his accident in qualifying, previous championship leader Daniel Ricciardo could only recover to 13th position from his 23rd place start. The Australian is now three points adrift of Aleshin's 30-point series lead, with Pentus third on 22.

Pos Driver               Team               Time/Gap
 1. Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin           46m26.663s
 2. Sten Pentus          Fortec               +6.105
 3. Stefano Coletti      Comtec              +18.895
 4. Albert Costa         Epsilon             +19.231
 5. Greg Mansell         Comtec              +20.498
 6. Federico Leo         Pons                +21.166
 7. Walter Grubmuller    P1                  +24.785
 8. Jan Charouz          P1                  +29.668
 9. Jon Lancaster        Fortec              +30.053 (penalty)
10. Anton Nebylitskiy    KMP                 +30.174 (penalty)
11. Julien Leal          Draco               +30.992
12. Daniel Zampieri      Pons                +31.891
13. Daniel Ricciardo     Tech 1              +32.198
14. Jake Rosenzweig      Carlin              +38.972
15. Keisuke Kunimoto     Epsilon             +39.403
16. Daniil Move          Junior Lotus      +1:16.605

Not classified

    Brendon Hartley      Tech 1              16 laps
    Nelson Panciatici    Junior Lotus        12 laps
    Nathanael Berthon    Dracog              11 laps
    Victor Garcia        KMP                  4 laps
    Filip Salaquarda     ISR                  0 laps
    Esteban Guerrieri    ISR                  0 laps
    Sergio Canamasas     Interwetten          0 laps
    Bruno Mendez         Interwetten          0 laps


Fastest lap, Hartley 2m05.547s