FR 3.5-C2 – Roberto Merhi wins, Carlos Sainz stalls

Winner yesterday for the fifth time this season, Carlos Sainz Jr had taken advantage of the Frenchman's bad race Pierre Gasly to widen the gap at the top of the championship. 3rd on the grid this Sunday for the second round, the Spaniard wanted to score big points again, Gasly being on the last row. But the son of the double world champion did not go further than the first corner, harpooned by Oliver Rowland (Fortec) who damaged his suspension in the maneuver and returned to the pits to give up. A first lap which will also see the retirements of Beitske Visser (AVF), Oscar Tunjo and Meindert Van Buuren (Pons Racing) following several collisions in the peloton, leading to the release of the safety car.

Pole sitter Roberto Merhi (Zeta Corse) remains in control of the race behind the Safety Car ahead of Frenchman Matthieu Vaxivière and Marlon Stockinger (Lotus). Good pick also for Pierre Gasly (Arden) who takes advantage of the avatars of the first round to move up to 10th position. At the restart, Merhi retained the advantage over Vaxivière, and would keep the lead until the finish. Stockinger completes the podium ahead of Sergey Sirotkin (Fortec). Having passed through the pits very early to try to move up in the standings, Pierre Gasly finally failed behind Will Stevens (Strakka Racing) in 8th position, taking advantage of the withdrawal of Pietro Fantin (Draco International). Stevens was, however, placed under investigation.

In the general classification, Carlos Sainz remains in the lead, but ahead of his compatriot Roberto Merhi who takes advantage of his success to overtake Pierre Gasly, now third.

Find the report of the FR 3.5 races in the 1969 issue of AUTOhebdo available from Monday evening in digital version, and from next Wednesday on newsstands.