Photo: Gedlich Racing
Alexander Ruta and Arjen Kraling were the winners of Formula Winter Series’ second and third races around Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes from qualifying set race two’s grid, putting Van Langendonck on pole. The laptime used was 0.001 seconds slower than the one that earned him pole for race one.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ruta qualified second, 0.171s behind, with Pedro Lima (VAR), Ludovico Busso (US Racing), Thomas Bearman (VAR), Jensen Burnett (Mathilda Racing) and Rocco Coronel (VAR) filling the next places on the grid.
Ruta and Lima either side of Van Langendonck at the start, and at turn one Ruta took the lead on the inside while Lima passed on the outside. The team-mates ran side-by-side through turn two, and Coronel was into fourth but got spun by Bearman which led to the latter being penalised five seconds.
Ruta went off into the gravel exiting turn five kept the lead and actually began pulling away despite lock-ups. He was 1.4s clear when the safety car was summoned on lap three due to AKM Motorsport’s Vittorio Orsini crashing out. Coronel had also retired from the race, and Rodin Motorsport’s Alfie Slater was at the back after pitting.
The field was bunched up at the last corner by Ruta before the lap six restart, which he nailed to build a 1.9s lead within a lap. He was unchallenged thereon, taking his maiden victory.
Lima went off exiting turn one on the restart, allowing Van Langendonck to dive down his inside at turn two. There was a lock-up, contact, Lima went off again and Bearman went past both on the inside of turn three. Bearman held onto second place despite his penalty, and Lima got back past Van Langendonck on lap 11 of 13 but then a track limits penalty demoted him to seventh.
Van Langendonck completed the podium, and was hounded by Busso after Lima, and US’s Ary Bansal won a lengthy pack battle with Burnett for sixth before his own five-second track limits penalty was applied and put him ninth.
Cram Motorsport’s Oscar Repetto was another to be penalised but retained 10th place as the drivers behind also got penalties.
Arjen Kraling set the fastest lap in a lapped 29th place, putting him on race three pole ahead of Bearman, Ruta, US’s Olexandar Savinkov, Bansal and Slater. Van Langendonck lined up 12th, and Coronel was last. Kraling and Savinkov had been late to leave the pits for race two so they could focus on taking the fastest lap.
Ruta got alongside Kraling on the run to the opening corner of race three, but had to tuck in behind as they went through the corner. Bearman held third, Slater lost four places while fighting, and Coronel broke his front wing so had to pit.
The safety car then came out due to Cram’s Andre Rodriguez crashing out, and racing resumed on lap four. Kraling was unchallenged up front, and when a second safety car period was called for on lap nine after Jenzer Motorsport’s Levi Arn crashed he was left with two laps of racing.
There was no change in the top four, completed by Savinkov, and initially Bansal was fifth ahead of Lima and Busso. Lima had to hold off Busso several times, and when he saw the opportunity to pass Bansal into turn 11 on the penultimate lap he took it. Busso also then got past as Bansal nursed front wing damage, and after the second restart Van Langendonck rose from 11th to ninth with clinical overtakes. Coronel recovered to 15th, three spots behind Slater.
Results round-up
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Alexander Ruta Van Amersfoort Racing 22m26.498s
2 Thomas Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing +5.978s
3 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport +6.988s
4 Ludovico Busso US Racing +7.172s
5 Jensen Burnett Mathilda Racing +8.590s
6 Teodor Borenstein Jenzer Motorsport +10.272s
7 Pedro Lima Van Amersfoort Racing +10.332s
8 Roman Kamyab US Racing +11.615s
9 Ary Bansal US Racing +12.517s
10 Oscar Repetto Cram Motorsport +17.463s
Pole: Van Langendonck, 1m34.818s
Fastest lap: Arjen Kraling, 1m34.614s
Race 3 (12 laps)
1 Kraling US Racing 21m50.876s
2 Ruta +0.685s
3 Bearman +1.595s
4 Olexandar Savinkov US Racing +1.982s
5 Lima +3.414s
6 Busso +4.278s
7 Bansal +5.609s
8 Samuel Ifrid Cram Motorsport +6.136s
9 Van Langendonck +6.225s
10 Repetto +6.738s
FL: Kraling, 1m34.452s
Championship standings
1 Van Langendonck 153 2 Ruta 92 3 Bansal 84 4 Bearman 78 5 Savinkov 71 6 Rocco Coronel 70 7 Alfie Slater 48 8 Ethan Lennon 47 9 Busso 47 10 Kraling 36