Donoso and Martins open the Renault Esport Series

The French Fabrizio Donoso and Victor Martins were the first winners of the Renault Esport Series on the Interlagos track on the iRacing platform.

In a virtual field of around twenty Formula Renault 3.5s, the Chilean was the first to stand out. Starting from pole, the Renault Vitality driver retained the advantage until Victor Martins overtook him.

However, the ART GP driver made a mistake in the Senna Esses in 9th place and left first place to Cem Bolukbasi. The M2 Competition driver saw his hopes of victory dashed when he collided with the backmarker Tommy Smith of JD Motorsport, an accident which allowed Fabrizio Donoso to take control until the finish to win by 3 tenths of a second. ahead of his compatriot while the Swiss Grégoire Saucy completed the podium more than 7 seconds behind.

“I struggled a lot in the first event. Victor used his DRS very early and I wanted to calm things down by bringing Cem back. Everything didn't go as planned since he took advantage of it by taking the lead after Victor's mistake, but I had a little success with his clash with a latecomer to win", commented the first winner of the Renault Esport Series.

Despite Cem Bolukbasi's pole in Race 2, it was still Fabrizio Donoso and Victor Martins who fought for the lead at the start after a problem encountered by the Turk on the grid. Although the first winner was still the best placed, he suffered two laps from the finish due to contact caused by Lorenzo Colombo of Bhaitech Racing. If the Italian crossed the finish line as the winner, he received a 5-second penalty for his collision. Victor Martins thus won on the green carpet in front of his compatriot while Lorenzo Colombo slipped to 3rd place.

“After my block allowed Lorenzo to overtake me, I then concentrated on taking big points, but the collision in front did my business and I just had to stay quietly behind Lorenzo as soon as I known for his penalty, commented Victor Martins. It’s a great first victory with ART Grand Prix. In both races, we finished first among the Formula Renault Eurocup competitors and I am therefore very happy to win two sets of Hankook tires which will be useful to us when we return to the circuits in July! »

Fabrizio Donoso and Victor Martins share the lead in the general classification ahead of Lorenzo Colombo and Grégoire Saucy. The next round will be organized on Friday June 5 on the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal.