Home News Muller claims lights-to-flag victory in Monaco

Muller claims lights-to-flag victory in Monaco

by Peter Allen

Photo: Renault Sport/DPPI

Nico Muller scored the biggest win of his career with victory from pole position in the Formula Renault 3.5 race before the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Swiss driver kept the lead off the line and never looked troubled, taking the chequered flag with a margin of 3.4 seconds as he claimed his first win in the series.

Marco Sorensen got the better of a slow-starting Jazeman Jaafar to move into second at the start of the race, but was never able to get close to Muller. The result is the Dane’s first podium of the season, and rookie Jaafar’s best result in FR3.5.

Series debutant Carlos Sainz jumped into fourth ahead of Kevin Magnussen at the start, but the DAMS driver later fought back with a move at Rascasse that forced the Spaniard wide and allowed fellow Red Bull Junior Antonio Felix da Costa past as well.

In a rather processional race, the best chance of an overtaking move for the remainder of the race came from Felix da Costa as he got right up behind Magnussen in the closing stages, but he was unable to get through and had to settle for fifth ahead of Sainz, who was struggling with brake problems.

The remaining spots in the top ten were decided on the first lap, with Will Stevens making up a couple of places at the start to take seventh ahead of Mikhail Aleshin, Stoffel Vandoorne – who started tenth after a grid penalty for crashing under yellow flags in practice – and Arthur Pic.

Results to follow