Rinus VeeKay dominated the third MRF Challenge race in Bahrain, lifting himself up into third in the standings in the process.
A strong start from pole prevented a challenge from fellow front-row man Felipe Drugovich, who then had no answer to VeeKay’s pace over the 10 lap race.
The Dutchman eventually crossed the line 7.784 seconds ahead of Drugovich, who extends his championship lead to 20 points.
Julien Falchero finished third, briefly making it past Drugovich late in the race, and continuously applying pressure to the Brazilian to finish just 0.046 seconds behind.
Alex Karkosik was a distant fourth, having started in third, ahead of Presley Martono and Dylan Young.
Manuel Maldonado had been part of the battle for fifth, before being handed a drive-through penalty for jumping the start, dropping him outside of the points.
Pavan Ravishankar finished seventh, ahead of Henning Enqvist, Danial Frost and Harri Jones.
A lap one spin involving Michelangelo Amendola and Robert Megennis dropped them to the back to the field, with both spending the rest of the race battling fiercely for position, eventually finishing 12th and 13th.
Race results (10 laps)
1 Rinus VeeKay
2 Felipe Drugovich +7.784s
3 Julien Falchero +7.830s
4 Alex Karkosik +11.236s
5 Presley Martono +16.930s
6 Dylan Young +23.573s
7 Pavan Ravishankar +26.780s
8 Henning Enqvist +26.985s
9 Danial Frost +27.329s
10 Harri Jones +30.755s
11 Nazim Azman +32.547s
12 Michelangelo Amendola +34.746s
13 Robert Megennis +37.201s
14 Kurt Hill +38.007s
15 Manuel Maldonado +41.929s
16 Richard Wagner +46.451s
17 Perdana Putra Minang +57.523s
18 Christophe Mariot +2m02.075s
Pole: VeeKay, 2m01.159s
Fastest Lap: VeeKay, 2m01.242s
Championship Standings
1 Drugovich 68? 2 Martono 48? ?3 VeeKay 43? ?4 Falchero 35? ?5 Young 27? ?6 Maldonado 25? ?7 Karkosik 24? ?8 Megennis 14? ?9 Ravishankar 14? ?10 Azman 4