Robin Frijns dominates Aragon Formula Renault 3.5 race two

The 2011 Formula Renault Eurocup champion, who was the man to beat in pre-season testing, inherited the top spot when early leader Marco Sorensen's Lotus car broke down on lap 10, and from there the Dutchman was never headed.

By then Frijns had worked his way into second place by passing Tech 1's Kevin Korjus on the opening lap, and ISR's Sam Bird at the start of lap six.

Bird would go on to take second place, but the Briton spent the latter stages of the race 10 seconds adrift of the leader after a stunning sequence of laps enabled Frijns to ease away.

The fight for second place was a three-way affair towards the end, with Bird having to fend off Korjus and slow-starting polesitter Arthur Pic (DAMS). But as the two cars behind Bird fought each other, he was able to build up a cushion to keep second.

Pic was the star of the race after the pitstops. First he worked his way past Arden driver Alexander Rossi to take fourth, and after charging up to the Bird/Korjus battle, he grabbed third place three laps from the end at the first corner.

The Frenchman ran out of time to put Bird under any serious pressure, while Korjus had to settle for a comfortable fourth ahead of Rossi and Richie Stanaway (Lotus).

The top two from race one had a day to forget. Saturday winner Nick Yelloly (Comtec) was caught up in a midfield accident at the first corner of the race and had to pit at the end of the opening lap, while Jules Bianchi had to start from the pitlane after his Tech 1 car failed to fire up for the warm-up lap.

The Ferrari junior driver was then handed a drive-through penalty during the race for his mechanics still being on the grid when the warm-up lap began, while Yelloly had a time penalty added on after the race for making his mandatory pitstop outside of the pit window.

Results - 27 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team           Time/Gap
 1.  Robin Frijns        Fortec       46m38.013s
 2.  Sam Bird            ISR            + 9.908s
 3.  Arthur Pic          DAMS          + 10.898s
 4.  Kevin Korjus        Tech 1        + 15.787s
 5.  Alexander Rossi     Arden         + 21.180s
 6.  Richie Stanaway     Lotus         + 23.843s
 7.  Daniil Move         P1            + 33.602s
 8.  Will Stevens        Carlin        + 39.995s
 9.  Giovanni Venturini  BVM Target    + 46.079s
10.  Andre Negrao        Draco         + 46.623s
11.  Mikhail Aleshin     RFR           + 47.346s
12.  Carlos Huertas      Fortec        + 47.869s
13.  Jules Bianchi       Tech 1        + 51.700s
14.  Anton Nebylitskiy   RFR           + 55.574s
15.  Nikolay Martsenko   BVM Target    + 56.528s
16.  Zoel Amberg         Pons        + 1m02.589s
17.  Vittorio Ghirelli   Comtec      + 1m20.057s
18.  Nick Yelloly        Comtec      + 1m39.983s

Retirements:

     Walter Grubmuller   P1              13 laps
     Marco Sorensen      Lotus           10 laps
     Yann Cunha          Pons             9 laps
     Lewis Williamson    Arden             1 lap
     Jake Rosenzweig     ISR              0 laps
     Lucas Foresti       DAMS             0 laps
     Kevin Magnussen     Carlin           0 laps
     Nico Muller         Draco            0 laps