Nyck de Vries (Koiranen GP) wins the first race of the 2014 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season. The member of the McLaren Young Driver Development Programme started from pole and went on to a start to finish victory ahead of Egor Orudzhev (Tech 1 Racing) and Bruno Bonifacio (Prema Powerteam) at the Motorland Aragón circuit. The Dutchman now leads in the general classification
.Saturday Morning, Nyck de Vries scored the first pole of the season in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. His lap of 1:55.474 allowed him to start ahead of Aurélien Panis (ART Junior Team), Egor Orudzhev, Bruno Bonifacio and Alexander Albon (KTR) on the starting grid.
Despite light rain, the entire field chose to set off on slick tyres. When the lights went out, Nyck de Vries maintained his advantage from pole, while Egor Orudzhev surprised Aurélien Panis to move into second place. Bruno Bonifacio and Alexander Albon followed the leading trio. Meanwhile, Kevin Jörg (Josef Kaufmann Racing) got past team mate Gustav Malja, for sixth place.
The leader wasted little time in pulling away. At the end of lap two, Bruno Bonifacio and Alexander Albon got past Aurélien Panis, who then had to fend off the attacks from Kevin Jörg, just until the Swiss driver spun. Behind the two, Gustav Malja firmly defended sixth place from his pursuers.
Extending his lead lap after lap, Nyck de Vries went on to take the first win of the season. Egor Orudzhev held off Bruno Bonifacio for second place on the podium ahead of the Brazilian. Alexander Albon finished fourth ahead of Aurélien Panis and Gustav Malja. Matt Parry (Fortec Motorsports) held on for seventh place in front of Ignazio D’Agosto (Koiranen GP), Simon Gachet (ARTA Engineering) and Matthew Graham (AVF).
Quotes
Nyck de Vries: ”It is a really good start of a season. After a great qualifying session, the start was really hard with the rain drops. As I led the race, I didn’t know how hard I could push, but when the rain stopped, I was able to be more confident and I managed to build a gap.”
Egor Orudzhev: ”It was an interesting race, I got a good start to move up to second place. It was easy to follow Nyck, so I tried to make a pass, but it didn’t work out. Then, I made a mistake and he was able to pull away. Yesterday was a difficult day for the team. We are all happy with this result.”
Bruno Bonifacio: ”It was important to start the season well to confirm all the work we put in during winter testing. We knew we could be competitive, but the conditions were really tricky at the start. Egor did a good job defending his position and he drove cleanly. We now need to work to confirm this start of the season.”
Provisional General Classification * : 1. N. de Vries – 25 points, 2. E. Orudzhev – 18, 3. B. Bonifacio – 15, 4. A. Albon – 12, 5. A. Panis – 10, …
*Subject to confirmation of the results following the technical and sporting verifications.
