Photo: Evers Media / Formula Renault 2.0 NEC
A week after his victory in the Eurocup series, Manor MP’s Andrea Pizzitola continued his winning ways in race one of the Formula Renault NEC title decider at the Nurburgring.
Starting from pole, Pizzitola held on to his lead off the line while Seb Morris climbed up to second after overtaking both Louis Deletraz and Kevin Jorg.
Throughout the race, Morris didn’t let Pizzitola build a healthy gap, but also could not get within less than a second of him, allowing the Frenchman to eventually take the checkered flag.
Josef Kaufmann’s Jorg completed the podium, while championship leader Ben Barnicoat extended his points lead with a fourth place after a move on his rival Deletraz.
Having then lost two more positions to Ukyo Sasahara and Jake Hughes, Deletraz had to settle for seventh.
Austrian Stefan Riener, Czech Josef Zaruba and Swede Gustav Malja completed the top ten. Title contender Steijn Schothorst took 12th after starting from 18th as he finished just three tenths behind Jules Gounon.
With two more races left in the season, five people remain with a chance at the title. Barnicoat leads by 15 points over Deletraz, while Morris and Schothorst are tied at 32 behind. Finally, Sasahara is 59 points adrift, with 60 available over the remaining races.
UPDATE: Gustav Malja received a post-race penalty of 30-seconds, which demotes him from tenth to 20th.
Race results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Andrea Pizzitola | Manor MP Motorsport | 13 laps in 25:39.717 |
| 2 | Seb Morris | Fortec Motorsports | +1.797 |
| 3 | Kevin Jorg | Josef Kaufmann Racing | +7.398 |
| 4 | Ben Barnicoat | Fortec Motorsports | +8.928 |
| 5 | Ukyo Sasahara | Euronova | +9.332 |
| 6 | Jake Hughes | ART Junior Team | +9.996 |
| 7 | Louis Deletraz | Josef Kaufmann Racing | +12.640 |
| 8 | Stefan Riener | Speedfish Racing | +13.927 |
| 9 | Josef Zaruba | AVF | +15.934 |
| 10 | Jules Gounon | AVF | +17.770 |
| 11 | Steijn Schothorst | Manor MP Motorsport | +18.096 |
| 12 | Raoul Owens | Mark Burdett Motorsport | +19.454 |
| 13 | Matthew Graham | AVF | +20.673 |
| 14 | Martin Kodric | Fortec Motorsports | +21.141 |
| 15 | Ryan Tveter | Josef Kaufmann Racing | +22.208 |
| 16 | Callan O’Keeffe | KTR | +26.748 |
| 17 | Philip Hamprecht | Inter Europol | +33.939 |
| 18 | Ivan Matveev | Euronova | +37.108 |
| 19 | Julio Moreno | Manor MP | +38.116 |
| 20 | Gustav Malja | Josef Kaufmann Racing | +46.147* |
| 21 | Inigo Bikuna | AVF | +51.389 |
| 22 | Harri Salminen | PositiOne | +59.671 |
| Not classified | |||
| Robin Hansson | Fragus BR Motorsport | +10 laps | |
| Roy Geerts | AVF | +10 laps | |
* – 30-second penalty