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Baguette wins again in race two

Bertrand Baguette claimed his second victory of the weekend at Le Mans today, to eke out a 19 point Formula Renault 3.5 Series lead with just three rounds remaining

Spaniard Miguel Molina climbed from 10th on the grid to finish second, his best result of the season. The Ultimate Motorsport driver set the fastest lap in his pursuit of Baguette, and closed to within 1.1 seconds of the Draco man's gearbox at the chequered flag.

After being passed by Molina in the pitstops, British Formula 3 champion Jaime Alguersuari picked up third place, and his first podium of the season.

"I made a fantastic start to pass four cars, so that was a large part of the job done," said Baguette. "There is a special reaction machine that I have been working on with my trainer, Dr Ceccarelli, so maybe it has been working.

"I also have to thank my team for their efforts in the pits; it was a really good operation."

British drivers occupied the first three positions on the grid, but all had difficulty converting their qualifying form into corresponding results.

Pole-man Jon Lancaster encountered suspected clutch or gearbox problems away from the line and was swamped into the first corner by James Walker, a fast starting Baguette (up from sixth) and Charles Pic.

Race one podium finisher Oliver Turvey ran fourth in the early laps, but had a troublesome rear wheel during his mandatory pitstop on lap six. Turvey was stationary for 14s, ruling the Englishman out of contention.

Walker relinquished the lead on the next tour, but he too had a far from routine tyre change. The Jersey driver, in effect, lost four positions by the time the pit window had closed on lap 19. Under intense pressure from Fairuz Fauzy, Walker spun out of fifth place at the Dunlop Chicane with just three laps remaining.

Arguably the fastest man on raw pace over the weekend, Lancaster was further delayed by his transmission problems during his pitstop, where a 4.9s change of front tyres preceded a stuttering getaway.

Lancaster had also lost the left part of his front wing tagging Pic at La Chapelle, while Pic retired after sustaining a right rear puncture. Surprisingly, Lancaster was only slowed when third and fourth gear started jumping out over the closing laps, and finished a fighting fifth.

"I think Pic couldn't swallow that I was going to pass him, just like yesterday," said a frustrated Lancaster. "He just drifted across on me. Getting the pole was great, and we've shown again that there's nothing wrong with our pace, but I want the prizes."

Baguette's closest title rival, Marcos Martinez, retired on the first lap after an incident involving Greg Mansell.

Pos  Driver                Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Bertrand Baguette     Draco            46m08.636s
 2.  Miguel Molina         Ultimate         +   1.148s
 3.  Jaime Alguersuari     Carlin           +   3.758s
 4.  Fairuz Fauzy          Fortec           +  14.919s
 5.  Jon Lancaster         Comtec           +  16.286s
 6.  Edoardo Mortara       Tech 1           +  16.535s
 7.  Marco Barba           Draco            +  16.799s
 8.  Pasquale Di Sabatino  RC               +  17.165s
 9.  James Walker          P1               +  20.419s
10.  Oliver Turvey         Carlin           +  22.261s
11.  Chris van der Drift   Epsilon Euskadi  +  27.473s
12.  Guillaume Moreau      SG               +  32.130s
13.  Sten Pentus           Fortec           +  32.432s
14.  Mihai Marinescu       Interwetten      +  50.029s
15.  Adrian Zaugg          Interwetten      +  51.847s
16.  Filip Salaquarda      Prema            +  52.825s
17.  Daniel Clos           Epsilon Euskadi  +1m04.426s
18.  Cristiano Morgado     Comtec           +    1 lap
19.  Daniil Move           P1               +   3 laps
20.  Julian Leal           Prema            +   3 laps

Retirements:

     Anton Nebylitskiy     SG               19 laps
     Federico Leo          Pons             19 laps
     Charles Pic           Tech 1           16 laps
     Greg Mansell          Ultimate         1 laps
     Marcos Martinez       Pons             1 laps

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