The United States’ Alexander Rossi has won the opening race of the Formula Renault 3.5 season. From second on the grid at Spain’s MotorLand Aragón, the Fortec driver took advantage of a first corner error from pole-sitter Robert Wickens as Nelson Panciatici and Albert Costa climbed to third and fourth places.
Rossi’s fight for the lead was in fact contested by the much-improved Daniil Move of the P1 squad, who moved into the lead in the early stages before resolutely defending at the respective hairpins of Turns 1 and 16.
However, a dramatic Rossi was finally able to overhaul the Russian on the 12th tour; following a lurid slide two laps earlier, the American narrowly missed several evacuating pit boards by shooting between Move’s car and the pit wall.
Move lost another place – to Wickens – just a lap later, with his subsequent loss of momentum quickly demoting him to a final fifth position. Further back, Anton Nebylitskiy was lucky to avoid injury after being launched over the back of Arthur Pic's car.
As Lewis Williamson dropped from tenth to 15th, Oliver Webb was the leading British representative in 11th as the chequered flag fell.
Sunday’s second qualifying session begins at 9:10am local time (BST +1)
Series
World Series by Renault
Personalities
Alexander Rossi
Teams
Fortec Motorsport
Other
Get your official Formula 1 tickets at Sportstadium.com
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  A. Rossi | Fortec | 46:29.465 |
| 2. | R. Wickens | Carlin | +8.521 |
| 3. | N. Panciatici | KMP | +9.647 |
| 4. | A. Costa | Epsilon Euskadi | +15.130 |
| 5. | D. Move | P1 | +26.564 |
| 6. | J. Vergne | Carlin | +27.052 |
| 7. | W. Grubmuller | P1 | +27.536 |
| 8. | C. van der Drift | Mofaz | +27.869 |
| 9. | D. Zampieri | BVM Target | +28.754 |
| 10. | S. Pentus | Epsilon Euskadi | +30.042 |
| Full results | |||
| Alexander Rossi | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More Alexander Rossi photos | |||
English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
