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Barcelona FR3.5: Frijns seals title in clash with Bianchi, da Costa wins

Antonio Felix da Costa completed a dominant Formula Renault 3.5 double at Barcelona, while Robin Frijns sealed the title after a collision with championship rival Jules Bianchi

While da Costa sprinted away after passing polesitter Mikhail Aleshin at the start, Frijns and Bianchi slotted into third and fifth positions respectively.

They were then nose-to-tail after pitting together, with early fourth place man Arthur Pic dropping back in the stops.

Both title contenders were jumped by a late-stopping Aaro Vainio, who scrapped with RFR team-mate Aleshin for second for the rest of the race.

Behind them, Bianchi sat in Frijns' wheel tracks for several laps, before diving down the inside into Turn 1 on lap 21.

Frijns responded seconds later with a lunge of his own into Turn 4. They collided, with Bianchi sliding into the gravel and out of the race.

From there Frijns ran sixth after losing places in the scuffle to Kevin Magnussen and Alexander Rossi.

A recovering Pic passed him on the penultimate lap, but with Bianchi out and Sam Bird behind him, Frijns was safe to come home seventh and take the title, subject to an investigation by the stewards.

Up front, da Costa won for Arden Caterham by 27 seconds in the end, while Aleshin held on in a fierce scrap with Vainio to secure a double podium for RFR in its last FR3.5 race.

Results - 29 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham   46m06.997s
 2.  Mikhail Aleshin         RFR               + 27.856s
 3.  Aaro Vainio             RFR               + 28.689s
 4.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin            + 29.398s
 5.  Alexander Rossi         Arden Caterham    + 29.919s
 6.  Arthur Pic              DAMS              + 32.398s
 7.  Robin Frijns            Fortec            + 33.293s
 8.  Sam Bird                ISR               + 34.088s
 9.  Andre Negrao            Draco             + 36.224s
10.  Will Stevens            Carlin            + 40.049s
11.  Walter Grubmuller       P1                + 42.532s
12.  Jake Rosenzweig         ISR               + 43.998s
13.  Tamas Pal Kiss          BVM Target        + 44.714s
14.  Nick Yelloly            Comtec            + 54.282s
15.  Nico Muller             Draco           + 1m05.300s
16.  Daniil Move             P1              + 1m31.146s
17.  Kevin Korjus            Lotus           + 1m31.336s
18.  Carlos Huertas          Fortec          + 1m33.132s
19.  Vittorio Ghirelli       Comtec          + 1m46.192s
20.  Nikolay Martsenko       BVM Target      + 1m46.429s
21.  Yann Cunha              Pons            + 1m58.682s
22.  Zoel Amberg             Pons                + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Lucas Foresti           DAMS                25 laps
     Jules Bianchi           Tech 1              20 laps
     Daniel Abt              Tech 1               8 laps
     Marco Sorensen          Lotus                2 laps

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Previous article Barcelona Formula Renault 3.5: Mikhail Aleshin takes shock finale pole
Next article FR3.5 champion Robin Frijns says Bianchi clash a racing incident

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