Hungaroring FR3.5: Robin Frijns wins to extend points lead
Robin Frijns extended his championship lead in Formula Renault 3.5 with a lights-to-flag victory in the first race of the weekend at the Hungaroring
The Fortec driver resisted constant pressure from Kevin Magnussen, who appeared to have a slight edge on pace but never recovered from losing two seconds to the race leader with a high-speed off at Turn 11 on lap seven.
Up to that point, Magnussen had closed the gap down to 0.4 seconds, reeling Frijns in after the poleman had streaked off into a comfortable lead with a superb start and opening couple of laps.
Magnussen then chipped away at what had become a 2.4 second lead, getting it down to as low as 1.2 by the start of the final lap. But Frijns didn't put a wheel wrong all race to take his third win of the season.
Behind the two rookies, Jules Bianchi moved into second place in the championship with a lonely race to third.
The Frenchman did just enough to keep Antonio Felix da Costa out of reach, after the Red Bull-backed driver was one of the few frontrunners to pull off an overtaking move when he relegated Arthur Pic to fifth place at Turn 1 on lap nine.
Pic held off Nico Muller for the rest of the race, with Carlos Huertas next up ahead of a slow-starting Marco Sorensen, who lost three places in the first two corners.
At the tail end of the top 10, title contender Sam Bird managed to salvage a point from what has so far been a difficult weekend, pressuring Lucas Foresti into a mistake and slipping through when the DAMS driver locked up at Turn 2.
However, that did little to limit the damage in the title race. Bird is now 29 points behind Frijns, having started the day just five adrift. Bianchi has slipped to 16 behind the Dutchman.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Robin Frijns Fortec 46m24.229s 2. Kevin Magnussen Carlin + 1.636s 3. Jules Bianchi Tech 1 + 12.201s 4. Antonio Felix da Costa Arden Caterham + 15.802s 5. Arthur Pic DAMS + 19.692s 6. Nico Muller Draco + 20.487s 7. Carlos Huertas Fortec + 24.726s 8. Marco Sorensen Lotus + 25.381s 9. Alexander Rossi Arden Caterham + 26.294s 10. Sam Bird ISR + 36.243s 11. Lucas Foresti DAMS + 43.367s 12. Kevin Korjus Lotus + 45.843s 13. Zoel Amberg Pons + 54.271s 14. Nick Yelloly Comtec + 55.270s 15. Andre Negrao Draco + 56.044s 16. Jake Rosenzweig ISR + 1m00.355s 17. Daniil Move P1 + 1m01.361s 18. Daniel Abt Tech 1 + 1m02.223s 19. Tamas Pal Kiss BVM Target + 1m14.622s 20. Walter Grubmuller P1 + 1m22.658s 21. Vittorio Ghirelli Comtec + 1m27.801s 22. Yann Cunha Pons + 1m28.306s 23. Will Stevens Carlin + 1m28.647s Retirements: Aaro Vainio RFR 26 laps Mikhail Aleshin RFR 1 lap Nikolay Martsenko BVM Target 0 laps
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