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Robert Wickens wins again in Silverstone Formula Renault 3.5 race two

Robert Wickens completed a double victory at round seven of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Silverstone on Sunday

The Carlin racer achieved a comfortable win over Alexander Rossi (Fortec), who charged through the field from sixth on the grid to finish two seconds adrift of the Canadian.

Carlin has sealed its first Formula Renault 3.5 teams' championship as result of Wickens' maximum score and team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne's fifth place.

"I had a good start," said Wickens, "but I didn't have that much raw speed before my pitstop as my car had some oversteer. After the stop I could control the race and it was just a case of limiting my mistakes."

Rossi's Fortec team had opted for a slightly risky set-up in qualifying that failed to yield dividends. The American was back on form in the race and, aided by an early pitstop on lap five, leapt ahead of Red Bull Junior drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Vergne in the pitstop sequence.

"The team pitstop was phenomenal and strategy was perfect it allowed me to attack in clear air at the beginning of the race," said Rossi. "There were times when we were almost two seconds quicker than the leaders and that really allowed me to come back into the race."

Starting from the outside of the front row, erstwhile championship leader Vergne had a frustrating afternoon. The early laps had offered promise when Vergne attacked Wickens for the lead. But a sticky wheel nut on his left-rear wheel delayed the reigning British Formula 3 champion's tyre change and allowed Ricciardo, who had followed Vergne into the pits at the end of lap eight, to rejoin ahead of the Frenchman.

Ricciardo's ISR team-mate Nathanael Berthon further demoted Vergne. Berthon led for five laps by staying out on track until towards the end of the pit window on lap 15, and split the Red Bull cars as he exited the pits.

Joining Vergne in suffering a troubled pitstop, Albert Costa lost a potential podium when his EPIC Racing crew encountered difficulty changing his right-rear wheel. The former Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion salvaged sixth place.

At the head of the drivers' standings, Wickens extended his points total to 198, Vergne drops 36 points adrift in second with two rounds of the championship remaining. The next meeting takes place at Paul Ricard on September 17-18.

Results - 25 laps:

Pos  Driver             Team                Time/Gap
 1.  Robert Wickens     Carlin            45m55.935s
 2.  Alexander Rossi    Fortec              + 2.034s
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo   ISR                + 14.576s
 4.  Nathanael Berthon  ISR                + 15.833s
 5.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Carlin             + 16.210s
 6.  Albert Costa       EPIC               + 17.015s
 7.  Jake Rosenzweig    Mofaz              + 18.400s
 8.  Brendon Hartley    Gravity-Charouz    + 19.154s
 9.  Cesar Ramos        Fortec             + 19.702s
10.  Kevin Korjus       Tech 1             + 22.927s
11.  Jan Charouz        Gravity-Charouz    + 23.718s
12.  Sten Pentus        EPIC               + 25.501s
13.  Walter Grubmuller  P1                 + 30.769s
14.  Oliver Webb        Pons               + 31.101s
15.  Daniel Zampieri    BVM Target         + 41.822s
16.  Nick Yelloly       Pons               + 42.105s
17.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP                + 50.853s
18.  Andre Negrao       Draco              + 51.330s
19.  Nelson Panciatici  KMP                + 52.265s
20.  Fairuz Fauzy       Mofaz              + 55.416s
21.  Sergio Canamasas   BVM Target         + 55.970s
22.  Stephane Richelmi  Draco            + 1m00.227s
23.  Arthur Pic         Tech 1           + 1m26.734s

Retirements:

     Daniil Move        P1                   21 laps
     Daniel de Jong     Comtec               10 laps
     Daniel McKenzie    Comtec                 1 lap

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