HUGHES WINS RACE 2 AT MONZA AND IS THE NEW FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 ALPS LEADER,FIRST EVER WIN FOR ROMANOV IN RACE 3   

Plenty of turnouts and new protagonists in Monza. After having drowned on Saturday the Brazilian JD Motorsport driver Thiago Vivacqua who won Race 1 achieving his first ever win in the Series, Formula Renautl 2.0 ALPS crowned two other young drivers. The Brit Jake Hughes (Koiranen GP) put all behind in Race 2, while the Russian Vasily Romanov (Cram Motorsport) proved the best in Race 3 after having also set pole position on Saturday. For Romanov this also proved to be his first ever win raking the flag ahead of yet another surprise of the weekend, the Ukrainian Danylo Pronenko (BVM Racing). Bad luck though for the previous Championship leader Jack Aitken. The Anglo/Korean driver managed P7 in Race 1 but get caught in an accident in Race 2 at the second chica ne and missed Race 3. He now chases the new leader, his team-mate Hughes, with a 10 point gap.

SUNDAY’S RACES REPORT. At Race 2 start Hughes defends his pole. Behind him the chasers are Matevos Isaakyan, Vivacqua and Stefan Riener. Brilliant start from Cazzaniga who recovers one place form P7 to P6 over the Russian Romanov who however strikes back at lap 2 passing the Italian. At the beginning of lap 4 Isaakyan makes his move at the Seconda Variante. He ends up wide though and gives back the position gained over Hughes. Just one lap afterwards it’s Romanov’s turn to try pass Riener. He however spins and forced to rejoined the group on the back. Yet another mistake is Cazzaniga’s one who spins at the Ascari giving way to Aitken. No mistake from Viavacqua who at lap 8 manages to pass his team-mate Isaakyan for P2. The following crash against the barriers of Denis Bulatov at the Ascari forces the Safety car with just nine more minutes to go. At the restart Isaakyan is caught by surprise and ends up seventh while Ai tken is forced to retire due to a mistake. The last laps witness the attempts of Vivacqua with Hughes capable of closing any possible gaps taking the chequered flag ahead of the Brazilian and Riener.

 Thanks to the inverted grid according to Race 2 finish, in Race 3 first row, Danylo Pronenko soon passes the poleman Philipp Hamprecht. A crash towards the end of the straight Isaakyan and Vivacqua calls in the Safety Car. Pronenko is still ahead even at the restart but yet another crash, this time at the Prima Variante between Ferdinand Habsburg and Bulatov, the latter forced to retire, and a contact among Matteo Ferrer, Jehan Daruvala and Cazzaniga calls in once more the Safety Car. Pronenko does his best to defend his lead at the restart but Romanov has a different pace and soon takes the lead. In the meantime Hamprecht is penalized with a drive-through.

 The next round of the Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS is due in just two weeks-time in Misano during the 18/19 July weekend.

The Championship after 12 races (top 5): 1. Jake Hughes GBR (Koiranen GP) 167; 2. Jack Aitken GBR (Koiranen GP) 157; 3. Stefan Riener AUT (Koiranen GP) 151; 4. Matevos Isaakyan RUS (JD Motorsport) 145; 4. Thiago Vivacqua BRA (JD Motorsport) 144.