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Spa FR3.5: Stoffel Vandoorne claims home victory

Stoffel Vandoorne made up for a frustrating first Formula Renault 3.5 race at Spa by winning on home soil in race two on Sunday

The Belgian took the lead on the opening lap from Nico Muller, after both had outdragged slow-starting polesitter Kevin Magnussen off the line when the lights went out.

Following a restart for a multi-car crash at the top of Eau Rouge, Vandoorne controlled the race, while Magnussen pitted early from third in an attempt to jump the top two.

Vandoorne's Fortec team covered that strategy off just right, meaning that when he pitted a few laps later he rejoined just ahead of the championship leader.

As Muller fell out of contention during the stops that allowed Will Stevens into third, and when Magnussen fell away from Vandoorne the Briton challenged for second.

Stevens eventually got by on the approach to Les Combes, taking to the grass on the straight as Magnussen defended.

Magnussen then tried to hang on around the outside on the brakes, but he was forced to cut across the corner and slot in behind Stevens.

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Antonio Felix da Costa also jumped Muller during the stops, but he could not get on terms with the leaders and had to turn his focus to keeping the Monaco race winner at bay.

The top five were well clear of the rest of the field, where Carlos Sainz Jr and Nigel Melker - who had a rather embarrassing clash with Tech 1 team-mate Mikhail Aleshin earlier in the race - fought hard for sixth.

Their scrap brought Jazeman Jaafar into the equation, and shortly after Melker found a way into sixth, Sainz and Jaafar collided at Malmedy on the penultimate lap, putting both out.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team              Time/Gap
 1.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec          47m06.630s
 2.  Will Stevens            P1/Strakka        + 4.536s
 3.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS              + 6.203s
 4.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham    + 7.138s
 5.  Nico Muller             Draco             + 8.490s
 6.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1           + 19.702s
 7.  Nikolay Martsenko       Pons             + 26.531s
 8.  Sergey Sirotkin         ISR              + 27.406s
 9.  Oliver Webb             Fortec           + 28.133s
10.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus            + 29.203s
11.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka       + 31.278s
12.  Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham   + 32.463s
13.  Christopher Zanella     ISR              + 33.444s
14.  Mihai Marinescu         Zeta             + 42.661s
15.  Norman Nato             DAMS             + 44.280s
16.  Zoel Amberg             Pons             + 46.298s
17.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus            + 46.617s

Retirements:

     Carlos Sainz Jr         Zeta               19 laps
     Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin             19 laps
     Carlos Huertas          Carlin             17 laps
     Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1              6 laps
     Daniil Move             SMP/Comtec          0 laps
     Yann Cunha              AV                  0 laps
     Andre Negrao            Draco               0 laps
     Arthur Pic              AV                  0 laps
     Lucas Foresti           SMP/Comtec          0 laps

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