The newly crowned Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup 2015 champion dominated the final race as he’s dominated the season, but the anticipation was on who was going to finish runner-up, and which of the rookies would take home the glory of 2015 rookie champion.
Jehan Daruvala looked set to take the fight to Max Defourny as he lined up next to Delétraz on the grid, but a dubious creeping at the start put his championship bid in jeopardy. Jörg took advantage of the Fortec driver’s poor start, as did Sasahara, both of them aiming to finish runner-up for the season. Also being opportunistic was David Droux, whose attempted move up the inside of Bruno Baptista spun the Brazilian around and ultimately ended the Swiss driver’s race.
Dries Vanthoor went for an audacious move past Daruvala, launching him into the air and out of contention for the rookie title – which was confirmed when he received a drive-through penalty for a jump start.
Coming out of the final corner Daruvala’s fellow Fortec driver Alex Gill got in a spin, and as Josef Zaruba tried to avoid him he got caught in Gill’s path, sending him flying into the tyre barrier and summoning the safety car.
The leading Josef Kaufmann duo of Jörg and Delétraz pulled out a gap to Sasahara in 3rd following the restart, positions they were set to keep until the end. After running wide and taking to the escape road, Vanthoor found himself in another tight battle, this time with Nikita Mazepin. The pair swapped places, dicing left and right to best each other, but a lock up and possible puncture stopped the Russian from keeping the fight up as he plummeted down the order, peeling off into the pits for a tyre change eventually.
Darius Oskoui, whose poor start had dropped him back, was on a charge, battling with Colin Noble and Pontus Fredricsson for the final points. The ART driver passed Noble, taking the fight to Mirecki who was unable to keep him behind.
With the rookie championship almost decided with Dauvala out of the points, all eyes were on the drivers in 2nd and 3rd on track, mirroring their championship standings. As Delétraz crossed the line to take his 9th and final victory of the season, Kevin Jörg kept the almost 3 second gap to Sasahara to be the runner-up and cement his second place in the championship and a Josef Kaufmann 1-2. Max Defourny crossed the line in 4th, taking the rookie victory and title following a stellar season.
