Parente wins race 2 in Istanbul
Alvaro Parente became at Istanbul today the fourth different Renault World Series winner in five races, the reigning British F3 champion keeping a clear head in a race filled with carnage
Making their debut appearances on the podium were Michael Aleshin in second and Davide Valsecchi in third.
Title rivals Pastor Maldonado and Borja Garcia had a controversial clash away from the front row when Garcia moved across the road directly into his rival.
Maldonado was sent spinning into the outside wall at Turn One, making heavy contact. Garcia's car did not appear to be damaged, and he set about opening up a lead from Alx Danielsson.
The gap had reached 1.8 seconds by lap four, when the black flag was shown, and Garcia was forced to sit the rest of the afternoon out.
Danielsson took over at the head of the field until his pitstop on lap nine. When he exited the pits he found himself in traffic, costing him a position to Aleshin. On lap 11, the two made contact, Aleshin shearing off half his front wing and Danielsson spinning into retirement with damage to his left rear.
The safety car was brought out to retrieve the Comtec machine, and from then on Aleshin had to fight resiliently to fend off a five-car train for second.
Hanley had initially looked set to grab the final podium spot before Valsecchi, who had pitted early on lap six, passed him into the final chicane with three laps to go. Second to seventh were covered by less than two seconds, and Rossiter did well to work his way up from 15th on the grid to fifth, overtaking Pilet and McIntosh in the dying moments.
The race featured several accidents, one of the largest befalling Robbie Kerr. The Englishman was left with nowhere to go when Christian Montanari spun in front of him. The KTR car road over Montanari's wheels and launched him into a sizeable impact.
Parente's win moves him into fourth in the championship standings just four points off leader Borja Garcia's total.
"This is a great win," said Parente, "I wasn't sure it would happen after my pitstop wasn't great, but it was enough to do the job."
CLASSIFIED:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Alvaro Parente Victory Engineering 42:07.406
2. Michael Aleshin Carlin Motorsport + 14.067
3. Davide Valsecchi Epsilon Euskadi + 14.904
4. Ben Hanley Cram Competition + 15.332
5. James Rossiter Pons Racing + 15.522
6. Sean Mcintosh KTR + 15.878
7. Patrick Pilet GD Racing + 15.976
8. Colin Fleming Carlin Motorsport + 19.638
9. Jaap Van Lagen Comtec + 20.880
10. Ryo Fukuda Tech 1 Racing + 21.275
11. Matteo Meneghello GD Racing + 21.534
12. Andy Soucek Interwetten.Com + 21.950
13. Bruce Jouanny RC Motorsport + 24.603
14. Alessandro Bonetti Jenzer Motorsport + 24.948
15. Tomas Kostka Draco Multiracing USA + 36.800
16. Jason Tahinci Eurointernational + 37.622
17. Hayanari Shimoda Victory Engineering + 37.625
18. Steven Kane Epsilon Euskadi + 39.532
19. Gregory Franchi Prema Powerteam + 40.409
20. Enrico Toccacelo Eurointernational + 41.157
21. Milos Pavlovic Cram Competition + 46.509
22. Jerome D'ambrosio Tech 1 Racing + 47.936
23. Eric Salignon Interwetten.Com + 3 Laps
NOT CLASSIFIED:
Driver Team Laps
Christian Montanari Prema Powerteam 17
Robbie Kerr KTR 17
Alx Danielsson Comtec 11
Alvaro Barba Jenzer Motorsport 7
Celso Miguez Pons Racing 7
Pastor Maldonado Draco Multiracing USA 0
Borja Garcia RC Motorsport DQ
Fastest Lap: Toccacelo, 1:41.537 on lap 20
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