Alexander Smolyar wins at Hockenheim but drops out of Formula Renault Eurocup title contention

Photo: ACI Sport

Alexander Smolyar grabbed his third Formula Renault Eurocup win in very wet conditions at Hockenheim, as R-ace GP team-mate Oscar Piastri extended his points lead.

The race started behind the safety car due to the wet conditions. After a few laps Victor Martins led the pack as racing started, although only a few laps later the safety car came out again.

It was on the lap that the race resumed again that Smolyar made a late-braking move work on Martins to move up into the lead, and despite a second safety car after a car was beached in the gravel, Smolyar held on for victory.

Piastri’s championship lead was slashed to under six points after Martins won the first race of the weekend, and he was running behind Martins in race two.

However, in the final two minutes Martins and Caio Collet made contact and both span, elevating Piastri up to second and Martins getting back on track in sixth place.

Rookie champion Caio Collet was able to recover quickly from the incident to complete the podium in third.

Martins did pass one car to take fifth, but didn’t have enough time to catch up with Kush Maini – who started outside of the top 10 – in fourth.

Lorenzo Colombo dropped down the order around when the first safety car came out after he had a trip through one of the gravel traps. However the Italian was able to recover from eighth to finish in sixth.

Toro Rosso’s F1 Esports driver Cem Bolukbasi retired early on with a mechanical fault, bringing an end to his debut weekend in single-seaters, while backmarker Alessio Deledda got beached in the gravel with 12 minutes left on the race clock.

Race results