Egor Orudzhev scored his maiden Formula 3.5 V8 win of the year today in Race 1 at Spa-Francorchamps, in the third round of the 2016 series. Orudzhev cruised to victory by prevailing in a thorough battle with Tom Dillmann (AVF) who ended up second and retained his championship lead. Louis Delétraz (Fortec Motorsport) scored third place and the rookie win. Orudzhev is the fifth different winner in the five races held so far this season.
The opening race of the Formula V8 3.5 series at the Belgian venue was spectacular since the very beginning, with all the drivers on-track fighting their way among the pack. Matthieu Vaxiviere (SMP Racing) was the great absent. After being the fastest in qualifying, all his laptimes were deleted due to a parc fermé infringement and he was forced to start from the back. The start was delayed due to a crash occurred to Matevos Isaakyan at the Radillon corner during the sighting lap. With Orudzhev promoted to the front row alongside his Arden Motorsport team-mate Aurelién Panis, the Russian went into the lead at the Source corner taking advantage of a slow start by the Frenchman.
Although René Binder (Lotus) exited the first corner in second place, the Austrian was caught by the recovering Dillmann at Les Combes, edging Delétraz and Yu Kanamaru (Teo Martin Motorsport) at the end of the first lap. Binder then also surrendered third place to Delétraz on lap two. With several set-up choices made by the team resulting in different aero configurations, Orudzhev and Dillmann fought hard and traded positions for the whole run with the Russian getting the nod and eventually crossing the finishing line in front of the AVF racer and Delétraz.
Seven drivers were covered by less than five seconds until the penultimate lap, when a contact put Johnny Cecotto (RP Motorsport) and Pietro Fittipaldi (Fortec Motorsports) out of contention. The top-3 were eventually covered by just 0.820s. Thanks to a ninth place by Giuseppe Cipriani, Durango scored the team’s first points in the series.
Egor Orudzhev (Arden Motorsport)
“I didn’t know how many laps were missing and I just tried not to lock the tires again. The race has been relatively easy at the start. I knew that Dillmann would have been quicker than me in the second sector, but exiting well from turn one I basically wasn’t providing him with any chance to attack. I made a mistake but I recovered well and I’m really delighted for this win”.
Tom Dillmann (AVF)
“I knew I was going to be really quick in the second sector but it wasn’t going to be easy to attack and defend myself elsewhere. I did a good move on Binder on lap 1 and I was quicker than Egor but I couldn’t find a way past him especially on the straight. I couldn’t pass him in the second sector either so there was not too much to do. I had to make a gap from him in order to be competitive in all the sectors and put some pressure. The race was fun, we provided a good show and I got another podium, the fifth in a row”.
Louis Delétraz (Fortec Motorsports)
“It was a good race and I enjoyed it. We started 5th because in qualifying we went on LDF, which was not the best choice to be the quickest. I had a good start, moving up to P4 quickly and making a good move on the straight. Then I was behind Tom and we had a traffic jam in the middle sector so I never had a real chance to attack”.
Richard Dutton, Fortec Motorsport Team Owner
“Pietro made a very good job, coming from P12 to the fight for the lead which is good, he had a good pace, It has been one of the most exciting races ever seen. Unfortunately Pietro’s race was affected by a contact in the last lap, but we are very happy for the podium of Luis, we had the speed to win which is good so it was a very good race for us”.
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