Guerrieri takes another FR3.5 win
Esteban Guerrieri delivered the perfect tonic to his off-track budgetary concerns by claiming a lights-to-flag victory at Brno, his second consecutive Formula Renault 3.5 win
Having triumphed at Spa in May, the Argentinean was forced to sit on the sidelines at the last race in Monaco and is fighting to raise the backing to participate at the next round at Magny-Cours.
Czech team ISR had staged a lock out of the front row in qualifying, but pole-sitter Filip Salaquarda was unable to capitalise on his advantage and was passed by team-mate Guerrieri into Turn 1. Salaquarda's hopes for a strong result in front of his home crowd would end in the gravel on lap two.
Red Bull Junior driver Brendon Hartley inherited the position but was unable to mount a challenge for the lead, finishing just under two seconds adrift of Guerrieri at the flag.
Anton Nebylitskiy delivered a career best result of third, carving through from tenth on the grid to fourth by the completion of the opening lap and thereafter demonstrating a competitive turn of speed.
"I feel great," said Guerrieri. "After the win at Spa it was not the best way not to go to Monaco, but the money situation was not in our favour. I understood that and wanted to help the team.
"I feel sorry for Filip, I think he moved a bit when the red lights were on. When he stopped, the lights changed and I was able to get a run up alongside. We said before the race that whoever got to Turn 1 first would take the corner, and I couldn't back off from the inside."
Draco's Julian Leal was another to achieve his best result of the season with fourth, the Colombian stealing the position from Keisuke Kunimoto on the inside of Turn 3 on lap three.
Neither of the championship leaders, Mikhail Aleshin and Daniel Ricciardo were able to add to their tally. Fifth place starter Aleshin was forced to pit on the opening lap, and after restarting to record the fastest lap the Russian came in once more to retire.
From a grid slot of 14th after falling foul of a red flag in qualifying, Ricciardo always had his work cut out to register a score. The British Formula 3 champion's progress up the order ended after reaching the back of a fierce battle between a racy Greg Mansell and a defensive Jon Lancaster.
Mansell's team-mate Stefano Coletti made rather better headway, producing one of the drives of the race to charge up into ninth from 17th.
Aleshin maintains his lead in the championship with 50 points, seven clear of Ricciardo. Fortec's Sten Pentus has gained ground courtesy of sixth place today, and is now six points back from Ricciardo in third.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Esteban Guerrieri ISR 46m47.517s 2. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 + 1.904s 3. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP + 2.994s 4. Julian Leal Draco + 4.415s 5. Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon Euskadi + 11.035s 6. Sten Pentus Fortec + 12.011s 7. Jan Charouz P1 + 16.740s 8. Nathanael Berthon Draco + 17.818s 9. Stefano Coletti Comtec + 26.716s 10. Jon Lancaster Fortec + 34.222s 11. Greg Mansell Comtec + 35.372s 12. Daniel Ricciardo Tech 1 + 35.647s 13. Nelson Panciatici Junior Lotus + 46.604s 14. Walter Grubmuller P1 + 46.720s 15. Filip Salaquarda ISR + 47.350s 16. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin + 56.270s 17. Sergio Canamasas FHV Interwetten + 56.656s 18. Albert Costa Epsilon Euskadi + 1m33.715s Retirements: Federico Leo Pons 19 laps Victor Garcia KMP 17 laps Daniel Zampieri Pons 11 laps Bruno Mendez FHV Interwetten 8 laps Mikhail Aleshin Carlin 8 laps Daniil Move Junior Lotus 0 laps
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