Barcelona FR3.5: Kevin Magnussen seals title with narrow victory

The McLaren junior led from start to finish in his DAMS machine, but he had to contend with pressure from Will Stevens (P1/Strakka) throughout the race to hang on for victory.

Magnussen appeared to have got the better of Stevens once and for all as the gap crept up towards three seconds mid-race, but he allowed the Briton to close up with an uncharacteristic mistake under braking at Turn 10.

After the race leader had locked up at the end of the backstraight his lead was down to one second, and Stevens was able to reduce that to 0.8 seconds at the start of the final lap.

But Magnussen hung on, giving him more than enough points to prevent Fortec's Stoffel Vandoorne from being able to take the title in Sunday's season finale.

Vandoorne finished a distant and lonely third in the race, having passed a slow-starting Will Buller off the line.

Buller's Zeta entry appeared set to take fourth, but after fifth-placed Sergey Sirotkin (ISR) retired with a broken rear wing, Buller came under pressure late on from Antonio Felix da Costa. The Briton eventually ran wide at Turn 10, giving the Red Bull junior the chance to pass to secure fourth for Arden Caterham.

Only 12 cars were running at the finish, with several of them being eliminated in a first lap accident triggered when Nigel Melker and Marco Sorensen came together at Turn 2 on the opening lap.

Their clash tipped Sorensen into a roll, and several other cars were then caught up in the melee that followed.

Results - 27 laps:

Pos Driver                  Car               Time/Gap
 1. Kevin Magnussen         DAMS            46m32.366s
 2. Will Stevens            P1/Strakka         +0.849s
 3. Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec            +11.582s
 4. Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham    +23.899s
 5. William Buller          Zeta              +29.431s
 6. Zoel Amberg             Pons              +30.196s
 7. Matias Laine            P1/Strakka        +33.363s
 8. Daniil Move             SMP/Comtec        +37.209s
 9. Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham    +42.491s
10. Oliver Webb             Fortec            +43.543s
11. Lucas Foresti           SMP/Comtec        +46.306s
12. Nico Muller             Draco           +1m14.850s
13. Nikolay Martsenko       Pons               +2 laps

Retirements:
    Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1             23 laps
    Christopher Zanella     ISR                23 laps
    Sergey Sirotkin         ISR                14 laps
    Arthur Pic              AV                 12 laps
    Andre Negrao            Draco               9 laps
    Carlos Sainz Jr         Zeta                2 laps
    Marco Sorensen          Lotus               0 laps
    Nigel Melker            Tech 1              0 laps
    Norman Nato             DAMS                0 laps
    Marlon Stockinger       Lotus               0 laps
    Yann Cunha              AV                  0 laps
    Carlos Huertas          Carlin              0 laps