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Stoneman dominates wet race one

Dean Stoneman claimed his fifth victory of the Formula 2 season at Oschersleben with the most dominant win of the campaign so far

It was the first wet F2 race of the year and Stoneman revelled in the tricky conditions, charging into the lead before the first corner from fifth on the grid.

He did not look back from there as he pulled away by around a second per lap during the first half of the race to open a mammoth 15-second lead, which he would maintain to the end.

"I don't know what I did at the start but it was a bit special," Stoneman said. "After that I just had to keep it smooth and stay consistent."

Title rival Jolyon Palmer, meanwhile, also put in one of his finest drives of the season to limit the damage of Stoneman's success.

Palmer started just eighth and had to work his way past Mihai Marinescu, Jack Clarke and Benjamin Bailly in the early laps, before closing down the the fight for second place between Kazim Vasiliauskas and Sergei Afanasiev.

When Afanasiev slid off the road at Turn 3, Palmer caught right up and took the place on the next lap. He closed on Vasiliauskas in the final laps but was unable to find a way round and had to settle for third - losing 10 points to Stoneman.

"I wasn't in a great position after the start but I was confident in the wet," said Palmer. "I was happy to pull off a few moves and limit the damage to Dean."

Afanasiev and Bailly finished fourth and fifth. Will Bratt completed the top six thanks to Philipp Eng sliding out of the place with two laps remaining following their wheel-banging battle.

Kelvin Snoeks was promoted to eighth on his way to the finish line after Nicola de Marco spun while challenging Eng exiting the final turn and dropped to ninth. Ricardo Teixeira rounded out the top 10.

Pos  Driver                 Time/Gap
 1.  Dean Stoneman        40m11.982s
 2.  Kazim Vasiliauskas    + 15.793s
 3.  Jolyon Palmer         + 16.466s
 4.  Sergei Afanasiev      + 26.958s
 5.  Benjamin Bailly       + 37.213s
 6.  Will Bratt            + 43.993s
 7.  Philipp Eng           + 50.776s
 8.  Kelvin Snoeks         + 58.995s
 9.  Nicola de Marco     + 1m18.033s
10.  Ricardo Teixeira    + 1m21.057s
11.  Armaan Ebrahim      + 1m26.575s
12.  Jack Clarke         + 1m39.621s
13.  Mihai Marinescu     + 1m40.132s
14.  Julian Theobald         + 1 lap
15.  Plamen Kralev          + 2 laps
16.  Johannes Theobald      + 3 laps

Retirements:

     Ivan Samarin        12 laps
     Benjamin Lariche    6 laps

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