Christopher Zanella wins Nurburgring Formula 2 race two with late pass on Mihai Marinescu
Christopher Zanella backed up his pole position by winning round six of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at the Nurburgring
Zanella lost the lead on lap two to Saturday's race winner Mihai Marinescu, the Romanian using the boost system to fire past the polesitter into Turn 1. But Zanella kept his cool, the Swiss driver shadowing Marinescu until there was just four laps left before pulling off a carbon copy move into the first corner.
Once in front, Zanella stayed there, pulling the gap out to three seconds over the last four laps.
Marinescu was forced to settle for second, ahead of a lonely Matheo Tuscher who ran third throughout the entire 19-lap race.
Markus Pommer was another driver to finish where he started, the German banking some good points at his home circuit with a solid fourth place.
While it was expected that points leader Luciano Bacheta would surge towards the front from his fifth place starting spot, it never happened. Instead, the Briton found himself losing fifth spot to Alex Fontana - and never getting it back. The pair finished fifth and sixth, ahead of another Briton, Dino Zamparelli, who at one stage made a brave, and eventually unsuccessful, lunge on Bacheta.
Daniel McKenzie made sure there were three Britons in a row by finishing eighth, while David Zhu and Kevin Mirocha took ninth and 10th respectively.
The start of the race was delayed after a fiery warm-up lap for Axcil Jefferies, the Zimbabwean driver's car catching fire halfway to the starting grid. The damage was sufficient enough to cause Jefferies to miss the race.
Results - 19 laps: Pos Driver Time/Gap 1. Christopher Zanella 34m52.831s 2. Mihai Marinescu + 3.092s 3. Matheo Tuscher + 11.856s 4. Markus Pommer + 15.574s 5. Alex Fontana + 17.819s 6. Luciano Bacheta + 21.280s 7. Dino Zamparelli + 22.282s 8. Daniel McKenzie + 23.537s 9. David Zhu + 24.551s 10. Kevin Mirocha + 25.023s 11. Hector Hurst + 40.114s 12. Parthiva Sureshwaren + 41.124s 13. Mauro Calamia + 41.688s Retirements: Maxim Snegirev 18 laps Plamen Kralev 0 laps Axcil Jefferies 0 laps
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