Matevos Isaakyan has taken his first victory of the season in World Series Formula V8 3.5 Series at Spa-Francorchamps. The Russian thanks to the strategy, joining the pits so late, beat Binder and Celis in the second race of the weekend.

A very entertaining start of the race with the pole sitter Pietro Fittipaldi (Lotus) as the protagonist. The Brazilian drop to third position after been overtook by Rene Binder (Lotus) and Diego Menchaca (Fortec Motorsport). But already in turn 1, the point’s leader passed Menchaca for third, and then did the same on Binder at Les Combes.

It was as well a good start for yesterday’s winner, Alfonso Celis (Fortec Motorsports) who started seventh, but climbed to fourth after overtake Matevos Isaakyan (AVF) and Roy Nissany (RP Motorsport) who followed the Mexican in fifth and sixth position, respectively.

Before the mandatory pit stop, the focus of the race was the battle for 8th place between Yu Kanamaru (RP Motorsport) and Teo Martin Motorsport drivers Nelson Mason and Konstantin Tereshenko. The latter, in order to avoid a crash with hi team mate went off at turn 1, while his team mate finally overtook the Japanese driver for 8th position.

Celis was the first of the leaders who did the mandatory pit stop after went off at Pouhon and lose the fourth position with Isaakyan, who then overtook Menchaca for third. The Youngster of SMP Racing was the last driver to join the pits, taking the lead of the race thanks to the poor pit stop from Fittipaldi who stall his Lotus and fall to 8th position.

With the leadership of the race, Isaakyan put a gap on Binder to take his maiden victory this season ahead of the Austrian and Celis. Fourth position was for Nissany who overtook Menchaca in the latest laps. Also a good comeback from Fittipaldi who overtook Egor Orudzhev (AVF) and Mason for a final 6th position.

But the Brazilian lost the lead of the championship with Alfonso Celis who leave Belgium as the new leader with 63 points, one more than Fittipaldi. Orudzhev came down to 3rd in the standings with 6 points less than the Mexican. Binder in 4th place is 15 points behind the Force India reserve driver.

The next round of World Series Formula V8 3.5 Series will be held at Monza, Italy on 13 and 14 of May.

Results:

Pos Driver Team Gap
1 Matevos Isaakyan AVF 21 Laps
2 Rene Binder Lotus 3,009
3 Alfonso Celis Fortec Motorsports 5,715
4 Roy Nissany RP Motorsport 8,55
5 Diego Menchaca Fortec Motorsports 13,064
6 Pietro Fittipaldi Lotus 21,767
7 Egor Orudzhev AVF 27,639
8 Yu Kanamaru RP Motorsport 31,944
9 Nelson Mason Teo Martin Motorsport 33,611
10 Diego Fioravanti RP Motorsport 34,184
11 Konstantin Tereschenko Teo Martin Motorsport 63,502
12 Giuseppe Cipriani Il Barone Rampante 117,838