Renault junior Max Fewtrell led every lap en route to victory in the opening Formula Renault Eurocup race of the weekend at Silverstone.
Having claimed pole position for his home race, R-ace GP’s Fewtrell successfully fended off fellow front row starter Logan Sargeant into Turn 1.
As the field exited Becketts for the first time, a tangle between Frank Bird and Alex Peroni as the pair battled for ninth left Bird stranded in the gravel trap. The safety car was deployed.
On the restart, Fewtrell was able to extend his lead over Sargeant to 0.6s immediately. He then proceeded to gradually build on this lead as the 30-minute race progressed, eventually taking victory by 1.5s.
Sargeant’s second place ensured a R-ace GP one-two finish, while Josef Kaufmann Racing’s Yifei Ye finished third. Ye now leads the drivers’ championship and Fewtrell is up to second.
Christian Lundgaard, who led the championship entering the race, failed to finish after breaking his rear suspension in contact with Raul Guzman while recovering from 16th on the grid.
Lorenzo Colombo and Alexander Vartanyan ended up fourth and fifth at the chequered flag. Colombo faced pressure from Vartanyan towards the end of the race but was able to maintain position. Less than half a second split the pair at the flag.
Victor Martins managed to stay ahead of Charles Milesi, with the pair finishing sixth and seventh respectively. Thomas Maxwell was eighth. The top eight all finished in the same positions from which they started.
Richard Verschoor finished ninth ahead of Red Bull-backed Neil Verhagen, who had contact in the closing stages with his Tech 1 team-mate Alexander Smolyar, who stalled when recovering, triggering an early end to his race.
Verhagen had battled with Max Defourny until the first of two off-track excursions took the Eurocup veteran out of points contention. First heading off at the fast right-hander of Farm, Defourny then spun?at Brooklands one lap after Smolyar’s incident. He finished 16th as a result.