Ramon Pineiro scores his second win of season at Red Bull Ring
Ramon Pineiro took his second F2 victory of the season in commanding style at Spielberg in Austria
The polesitter made a perfect start and simply drove away from the field. In the opening stages he was consistently 0.2-0.3s quicker than Mirko Bortolotti in second. Pineiro's pace remained relentless - only twice did Bortolotti set a faster lap than him - and he duly won by over 5s.
Considering his pace in free practice, Bortolotti's performance was a surprise, but he won't be complaining about the result in terms of the championship. With nearest rival Christopher Zanella suffering a shocker, Bortolotti has extended his lead by 18 points.
Zanella ran fifth for much of the race, but dropped a place to Jack Clarke with a spin. Things got much worse when he was hit with a drive-through penalty for ignoring the track limits, and he finished back in 12th, out of the points.
Mihai Marinescu had to deal with race-long pressure from Alex Brundle as they fought over third. But the Romanian kept his cool to take his first F2 podium. Fifth was a great result for Clarke, who started 12th and survived a whack from Johannes Theobald at the first corner.
The incident actually sent Theobald barrel-rolling out of the race - his second such accident this season! It was a better race for his brother Julian, who had his best finish to date, taking sixth place.
Luciano Bacheta's strong F2 debut continued with a solid run to seventh, while Benjamin Lariche took eighth. Brit James Cole was ninth, while Plamen Kralev scored his first F2 point in 10th.
Results - 26 laps: Pos Driver Time/Gap 1. Ramon Pineiro 36m28.200s 2. Mirko Bortolotti + 5.401s 3. Mihai Marinescu + 14.153s 4. Alex Brundle + 14.574s 5. Jack Clarke + 26.893s 6. Julian Theobald + 31.358s 7. Luciano Bacheta + 34.381s 8. Benjamin Lariche + 35.115s 9. James Cole + 41.405s 10. Plamen Kralev + 47.603s 11. Maxim Snegirev + 49.176s 12. Christopher Zanella + 51.104s 13. Sunghak Mun + 53.975s 14. Armaan Ebrahim + 54.631s 15. Tobias Hegewald + 56.208s Retirements: Rene Binder 22 laps Kelvin Snoeks 13 laps Thiemo Storz 6 laps Parthiva Sureshwaren 3 laps Miki Monras 1 lap Mikkel Mac 1 lap Johannes Theobald 0 laps
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