Shlom (Fortec Motorsports) takes last-minute win in race 1

Russia´s Yan Leon Shlom, on his debut in the Euroformula Open with Fortec Motorsports, snatched a breathtaking win at Circuit Paul Ricard in treacherous conditions. In a racing-affected qualifying, his teammate Jannes Fittje stormed to pole position by clocking a lap time of 2:16.318 ahead of Nikita Troitskiy (Drivex), the only drivers to break the 2:17 barrier. Despite wet weather were extremely demanding for drivers in the morning, conditions steadily worsened for race 1. In fact, the field started behind the safety car. Then, after three laps, the safety car pulled into the pit lane with Fittje leading the pack ahead of Troitskiy, Thiago Vivacqua (Campos Racing), Shlom, Harrison Scott (RP Motorsport), Simo Laaksonen (Campos Racing) and the duo of Carlin, Devlin DeFrancesco and Ameya Vaidyanathan. Soon, several drivers such Matheus Iorio (Campos Racing) and his teammate Laaksonen or Daniil Pronenko (BVM Racing) lost time due to spins or they were forced to retire from the race. Up front, Fittje pulled away and Shlom moved up to second after passing Troitskiy on lap five. Scott and Vivacqua, who was overtaken by the RP Motorsport driver and Shlom one lap earlier, were running in fourth and fifth. As weather conditions slightly improved, the two Fortec drivers traded fastest laps but Shlom began closing on Fittje. Finally, German driver spun and Shlom deprived his teammate of success. Fittje still secured 1-2 finish for Fortec ahead of Troitskiy. Scott came fourth following a spin and Vivacqua finished fifth and Brazil´s driver spearheaded Campos Racing charge. Pedro Cardoso, putting in a brilliant recovery drive, took sixth place for Teo Martín Motorsport and secured pole position for race 2. DeFrancesco finished in seventh place, Eliseo Martínez (Teo Martínez Motorsport) in 8th and Alexey Chuklin (Fortec) in 9th. Ludovico Laurini (RP Motorsport) also made it into the top-ten.

2017-03-06