Turvey claims victory at Spa

The 21-year-old Briton has dominated the weekend up to this point and turned his pole position into a comfortable victory.

He didn't have it all his own way, though, and had to drive around his Carlin Motorsport teammate Brendon Hartley into Eau Rouge on the first lap to regain the lead after Hartley beat him down to La Source at the start.

Once he resumed the lead, Turvey settled into a rhythm, although the gap between the Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver and Hartley fluctuated between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds throughout the race.

Turvey was thrilled to clinch his first win since the opening round of the season in April and has closed the gap to Jaime Alguersuari at the top of the standings to just four points.

"It was interesting going through Eau Rouge side-by-side on the first lap," said Turvey. "It's great to be dominating, and it makes it even sweeter that it's at Spa.

"I had to push really hard every lap to make sure he couldn't get enough of a slipstream to pass me, but I knew I had the pace to control it, I've had that confidence all weekend."

Hartley was quick enough to stay with Turvey, but the leader had enough in hand that Hartley couldn't drag past on the long straights, but he was happy enough with second.

"I expected to be able to pass around here, this is Spa," he said. "But I just couldn't get near him, even in the slipstream. But he did a good job. I would have only needed him to make one mistake."

Alguersuari completed the podium with Sam Abay in wheeltracks completing a clean sweep of the top four places for Carlin.

John Martin was fifth for Double R, ahead of a race-long battle between Sergio Perez and Marcus Ericsson for sixth. The memories of the previous round at Brands Hatch will have come flooding back to Ericsson after spending his third consecutive race tucked under the rear wing of the Mexican's T-Sport car.

The Swede had been up to third on the first lap but came off worst when he, Alguersuari, Abay, and Perez ploughed into Eau Rouge together on lap two.

Michael Devaney finished eighth for Ultimate Motorsport, with Walter Grubmuller and Atte Mustonen completing the top ten.

Stefan Wilson won the National Class after passing Salman Al-Khalifa for 14th place overall on lap eight.

Guest driver Daniel Campos-Hull was set for a good showing with HBR Motorsport, but the Spaniard collided with Sebastian Hohenthal at Les Combes on lap eight while contesting tenth place and both retired on the spot.

Pos Driver               Team         Car         Gap
 1. Oliver Turvey        Carlin       D/M   27:10.800
 2. Brendon Hartley      Carlin       D/M      +1.231
 3. Jaime Alguersuari    Carlin       D/M      +7.540
 4. Sam Abay             Carlin       D/M      +8.651
 5. John Martin          Double R     D/M     +12.222
 6. Sergio Perez         T-Sport      D/H     +18.050
 7. Marcus Ericsson      Fortec       D/M     +18.437
 8. Michael Devaney      Ultimate     M/M     +25.100
 9. Walter Grubmuller    Hitech       D/M     +25.626
10. Atte Mustonen        Double R     D/M     +29.599
11. Alastair Jackson     Ultimate     M/M     +36.394
12. Henry Arundel        Double R     D/M     +38.011
13. Oliver Oakes         Eurotek      D/M     +38.635
14. Stefan Wilson        Fluid (N)    D/H     +44.867
15. Salman Al-Khalifa    T-Sport (N)  D/H     +45.623
16. Jay Bridger          Fluid (N)    D/H     +45.803
17. Max Chilton          Hitech       D/M     +46.430
18. Steven Guerrero      T-Sport (N)  D/H     +51.411
19. Hywel Lloyd          CF (N)       D/H     +51.918
20. Phillip Major        Fortec       D/M     +53.040
21. Kristjan Einar       Carlin (N)   D/H   +1:02.343
22. Craig Reiff          Nexa (N)     D/H   +1:26.032
23. Nick Tandy           JTR          M/M   +1:29.828

Retirements

    Ricardo Teixeira     Ultimate     M/M      8 laps
    Daniel Campos-Hull   HBR          D/M      6 laps
    Sebastian Hohenthal  Fortec       D/M      6 laps
    Basil Shaaban        HBR          D/M       1 lap


Fastest lap, Hartley 2:15.362 on lap 6