Merhi wins second race at Moscow Raceway

Valencian driver of Zeta Corse team wins his first race of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Moscow Raceway. Starting from pole position, he led the whole race until the end. Pierre Gasly finished almost 7 seconds behind the Spanish driver. Stanaway completes the podium.  

At the start of the second position holder Richie Stanaway hesitated, conceding Gasly. Saturday’s race winner Sergey Sirotkin, in turn, was able to beat Oliver Rowland. In the future, despite the pit stops, the position of the leading group of pilots did not change until the finish. However, Merhi then set about pulling away with ease for the rest of the race, crossing the line nearly seven seconds clear of the Red Bull junior, giving his Russian-owned Zeta team a ‘home’ wins. Stanaway attacked Gasly on the outside into the final corner on the opening lap, but the Red Bull junior ran him out of road on the exit and was never threatened again from there.

Already in the middle of the race due to technical problems had to stop fighting driver of Draco Pietro Fantin. After a few more laps co-pilot Zeta Corse, Roman Mavlanov also fizzled in gravel and out of the race.

The Kiwi’s fierce defence at the start had Rowland enough to allow race one winner Sergey Sirotkin to pass him for fourth into Turn 2, and the Briton could do nothing about his Fortec team-mate for the remainder of the race.

There was more bad news for Rowland as after the pit stops were complete, He had championship leader Carlos Sainz Jr in his mirrors.

The Spaniard made up a couple of places from 11th on the grid at the start, and he took advantage of an early pit stop to climb up to sixth, minimising the damage inflicted by Gasly and Rowland in the title race.

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