Jaap van Lagen celebrated his Eurocup Mégane Trophy title in style by taking his fourth victory of the season ahead of Matthieu Lahaye (Tech 1 Racing) and César Campaniço (Racing for Belgium). The podium for race two was a repeat of that seen yesterday. In total, more than 75,000 fans were in attendance for this closing round of the 2006 World Series by Renault. See you again in 2007! Jean-Philippe Dayraut (Epsilon Euskadi) missed out on his chance to start from row two of the grid, being forced to start from the pit lane instead. In a re-run of yesterday, Jaap Van Lagen made an impeccable start from pole position. Frédéric Gabillon (Team Lompech Sport), who should have had Dayraut in front of him, had a clear run to get onto the leader's tail. He managed to hold off Matthieu Lahaye, who was piling on the pressure on the brakes into the opening corner.
Initially in fourth, Bruce Lorgeré-Roux (Tech 1 Racing) lost several places on the opening lap, which he completed in eighth position behind Van Lagen, Gabillon, Lahaye, Campaniço, Balzan, Hirschi and Meichtry.
Hirschi, who had already dropped back several places on lap three, made another costly error and was only able to rejoin at the back of the field. Bruce Lorgeré-Roux picked up a drive-through penalty for having collided with two competitors whilst rejoining the race after running wide.
On lap six, Matthieu Lahaye passed Frédéric Gabillon to move up into second. Gabillon then quickly came under threat from Campaniço.
In the meantime, Jaap Van Lagen was busy securing the win by increasing his lead at regular intervals. Jean-Philippe Dayraut was also making a fine comeback, already back up to ninth after seven laps.
On lap eleven, it was Campaniço's turn to get past Frédéric Gabillon. Meanwhile, Matthieu Lahaye was seeing the fruit of his efforts, having pulled back to within just a few tenths of Van Lagen.
A little further back, Jean-Philippe Dayraut had unseated Sébastien Dhouailly (Thierry Boutsen Racing) from sixth place. On the final lap, Alessandro Balzan (Oregon Team) spoiled what had been a fine performance thus far by dropping back from fifth to seventh. Pedro Petiz (Iris Racing) took advantage of the situation to pass Ralph Meichtry (Race Performance) and move up two places in the process.
Jaap Van Lagen: "It feels great to end the season with two victories. People tend to remember the last races of the season, so that should be good for my future. This race was more difficult than race one because Matthieu was piling on the pressure from behind. Next year I hope to make a return to World Series Formula Renault 3.5, if possible with Comtec Racing."
Matthieu Lahaye: "It was a difficult race. Gabillon was quick off the start, but I managed to get past him. I had promised the team that I'd win this race, but Jaap was simply too quick for us. I hope to be back in Formula Renault 3.5 next year."
César Campaniço: "I started on old tyres, so I was expecting a difficult race. The battle with Gabillon in the closing stages was good fun and I'm happy to end the season on the Championship podium. Unlike Jaap and Matthieu, I think my future lies in touring cars."
