Marinescu takes comfortable win in opening Formula 2 race at Nurburgring

The Romanian put in a flawless drive from pole position, perfectly balancing tyre management with enough speed to stay more than a second ahead of the field and crucially leaving him clear of the 'boost zone'.

With Marinescu failing to put a foot wrong, Briton Luciano Bacheta was forced to settle for second position.

Having won all four races so far this year Bacheta was a hot tip to win again from the front row, but instead spent the entire race sitting between three and four seconds behind the leader. The gap was 3.4 seconds at the chequered flag.

Christopher Zanella put in the most exciting drive of the race, charging from seventh on the grid to third. The Swiss driver was the fastest man on track for the majority of the contest, quickly joining Kevin Mirocha and Matheo Tuscher in a fight for third, before barging past both of them and streaking away into the distance.

Mirocha wound up holding on for fourth place, despite race-long pressure from young gun Tuscher. In the latter stages of the race another Swiss driver, Alex Fontana, was threatening to join the battle. However, he ran out of laps and was forced to settle for sixth.

Daniel McKenzie had a tough race after starting third on the grid. Having lost out to Mirocha at the start, the Briton lost more spots as the race wore on, eventually settling into eighth place, behind David Zhu.

German driver Markus Pommer had a tough outing on his home track, the frontrunner only capable of ninth, ahead of Hector Hurst.

Results - 20 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Time/Gap
 1.  Mihai Marinescu       37m00.053s
 2.  Luciano Bacheta         + 3.428s
 3.  Christopher Zanella     + 5.836s
 4.  Kevin Mirocha          + 13.380s
 5.  Matheo Tuscher         + 13.921s
 6.  Alex Fontana           + 14.776s
 7.  David Zhu              + 15.254s
 8.  Daniel McKenzie        + 21.769s
 9.  Markus Pommer          + 28.465s
10.  Hector Hurst           + 31.315s
11.  Plamen Kralev          + 35.289s
12.  Parthiva Sureshwaren   + 35.701s
13.  Dino Zamparelli        + 51.557s
14.  Axcil Jefferies        + 52.150s
15.  Mauro Calamia           + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Maxim Snegirev           11 laps