Home Featured Jaafar takes maiden FR3.5 victory and championship lead in Monaco

Jaafar takes maiden FR3.5 victory and championship lead in Monaco

by Gruz David
Photo: Gregory Lenormand / DPPI

Photo: Gregory Lenormand / DPPI

Jazeman Jaafar continues to impress in Monaco, having converted a pole position into his maiden win in Formula Renault 3.5.

He will also leave the track with the championship lead after both Oliver Rowland and Matthieu Vaxiviere, the drivers ahead of him in the standings, hit trouble during the race.

Starting from second, Rowland got a better launch than Jaafar and was close to take the lead, only to suffer a puncture after Vaxiviere hit his rear at turn one.

The Frenchman’s mistake also caused Nyck de Vries, Tio Ellinas and Gustav Malja to drop down to the back of the order, the Swede even retired after his car stopped.

Alfonso Celis was also an early victim of the race, having lost control of his car at the chicane after Tabac.

The race got red-flagged when Meindert van Buuren collected Bruno Bonifacio‘s car while braking into turn one, both of them hitting the barriers at high speed. Bonifacio was taken by stretcher to hospital after the incident for checks.

After the restart, Rowland was the one to provide the action, having recovered from 12th to sixth with impressive overtakes at various corners including Mirabeau and the Swimming Pool.

It was all calm at the front with Jaafar staying in the lead until the finish ahead of Dean Stoneman and Tom Dillmann.

Arden’s Egor Orudzhev?and Draco’s Pietro Fantin survived in fourth and fifth ahead of Rowland.

Aurelien Panis managed to hold off Rowland for a respectable amount of time but ultimately the Frenchman had to settle for seventh followed by Indonesian Sean Gelael and?FR3.5 debutant Alex Fontana.

De Vries managed to finish inside the top ten despite being one of the victims of the incident at the start.

UPDATE: De Vries has been relegated to 11th due to a 10-seconds time penalty. Philo Armand inherits the final top ten position to collect his first point of the season.

Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap
1 Jazeman Jaafar Fortec Motorsports 21 laps in 42:04.050
2 Dean Stoneman DAMS 3.235
3 Tom Dillmann Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 6.327
4 Egor Orudzhev Arden Motorsport 8.580
5 Pietro Fantin Draco Racing 10.025
6 Oliver Rowland Fortec Motorsports 13.594
7 Aurelien Panis Tech 1 Racing 28.017
8 Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 30.090
9 Alex Fontana Pons Racing 34.024
10 Philo Armand Pons Racing 46.733
11 Nyck de Vries DAMS 48.849*
12 Roy Nissany Tech 1 Racing 1:11.789
13 Beitske Visser AVF +5 laps
Not classified
Nicholas Latifi Arden Motorsport +8 laps
Bruno Bonifacio Draco Racing +19 laps
Meinder van Buuren Lotus +19 laps
Alfonso Celis AVF +20 laps
Tio Ellinas Strakka Racing +20 laps
Gustav Malja Strakka Racing +21 laps
Matthieu Vaxiviere Lotus +21 laps

*Nyck de Vries received a 10-second time penalty after the race.