Lorenzo Colombo completes double Eurocup victory at Paul Ricard

Photo: Renault Sport / DPPI

Lorenzo Colombo completed a Formula Renault Eurocup double win at Paul Ricard, while fellow front-row starter Oscar Piastri battled back from 17th to sixth.

Colombo made a clean start from pole, quickly breaking away from the rest of the field. He was unchallenged throughout the 16-lap race and set fastest lap multiple times as he built a lead of almost nine seconds.

As Alexander Smolyar and Victor Martins battled for second place, neither could answer Colombo?s pace and he finished 8.8 seconds ahead of the duo.

R-ace GP’s Smolyar, having moved into second off the line, held onto the position despite pressure from championship leader Martins, finishing just 0.696s ahead of the MP Motorsport driver.

Further down the order, two frontrunners were battling forward after early misfortune. Piastri?s poor start put him at the bottom end of the field, but he quickly made back positions. By the race midpoint, he joined the four-car battle at the tailend of the top 10 and, once passing Frank Bird, rapidly closed the gap to Amaury Cordeel.

After running side-by-side on the pit straight, Piastri passed Cordeel at the first corner and set about catching Ugo de Wilde for sixth. A mistake from de Wilde on the final lap allowed Piastri through to take the position, but the Australia still drops to third in the standings behind R-ace team-mate Smolyar.

Also in the battle for points was Leonardo Lorandi, who started from last place. He quickly made up positions, joining the back of the train of cars behind Bird with Piastri. In?the closing stages he got onto the the tail of JD Motorsport team-mate Joao Vieira, but couldn?t pressure a mistake and had to settle for 11th, just 0.198s outside the points.

Caio Collet was the top rookie in fourth for R-ace, ahead of Arden’s Sebastian Fernandez.

Race results