Jack Aitken (Koiranen GP) opened his weekend at Misano with victory over Matevos Isaakyan (JD Motorsport) and poleman Jehan Daruvala (Fortec Motorsports). Aitken’s teammate, Jake Hughes, who held the championship lead finished this morning’s race in 5th behind Vasily Romanov, allowing Aitken to edge past him by 3 points to top the table.
It was a lightning start that saw the British-Korean driver inherit the lead from Force India’s protégé Daruvala, and it was persistence and controlled driving that allowed Aitken to maintain the lead for the 17 laps. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however, with Aitken admitting to Renault Sport Italia a mistake from him would’ve led to Isaakyan winning given the Russian’s superior pace in the second half of the race.
Behind them, it was closely fought between Stefan Reiner and Thiago Vivacqua, who were ultimately passed by Romanov and Hughes, with the British driver claiming fastest lap along the way. Daniele Cazzaniga, Alexey Korneev and Danylo Pronenko making up the remainder of the top 10 and seizing points.
Unusually, there were no retirements from Race 1, highlighting the pedigree of young drivers in the series this year.
Race 2 takes place at 17:55 local time, follow it live at www.renaultsportitalia.it.