De Vries wins at Catalunya as Rowland cuts Gasly’s lead

Photo: Renault Sport

Nyck de Vries claimed his second Eurocup victory of the season with a sublime drive from pole in race one at Catalunya, whilst Oliver Rowland lowered Pierre Gasly?s championship lead to eight points.

While de Vries held on to the lead off the line, Rowland managed to get away better than Gasly, taking over in second.

Despite passing the Frenchman, Rowland never troubled de Vries out in front. The Dutchman, thus, led every lap and finished comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.

Third place for Gasly keeps the destination of the championship in his hands, and a second-place finish in tomorrow’s race would be enough for him to take the title.

Esteban Ocon finished in fourth and was mathematically eliminated from title contention. Egor Orudzhev crossed the line in fifth, having passed sixth-placed Andrea Pizzitola, with Ignazio D?Agosto taking seventh.

Josef Kaufmann?s Oscar Tunjo was eighth, followed by Kevin Jorg who achieved his first top ten result of the campaign. Koiranen?s Victor Franzoni took tenth place as Jake Dennis retired from seventh with a gearbox issue during the last lap.

UPDATE: Esteban Ocon has received a post-race penalty of ten seconds added for forcing fellow Lotus junior Oscar Tunjo off-track. The penalty demotes the Frenchman to seventh from his original finishing position of fourth.

Meanwhile, Luca Ghiotto will receive a three-place grid penalty for tomorrow’s race.

Race results

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