Jesse Carrasquedo took his third win of the season in a Race 1 at Circuit Paul Ricard that he dominated from the qualifying session. After conquering his maiden pole, the Mexican of Motopark won the race with authority from lights to flag, in a more dominant way than the gaps suggest.
Completing an all-Motopark podium, championship leader Rui-heng Yeh and US racer Everett Stack completed the podium, finishing two seconds behind Carrasquedo but never being in a position to threaten him.
Carrasquedo was a happy man after the victory, and mimed smoking cigar to express the excellent day: “Things went exactly how I dreamt this morning after the pole. This time I had a perfect start, and also a perfect restart, and that allowed to control the race, the pace and tyre consumption. The Paul Ricard is a track I love and, as a Mexican, racing in this heat is not a problem.”
THE RACE – Carrasquedo takes a perfect start from the pole, followed by Yeh, who has jumped from row 2, Herrera, Stack and de la Torre, who had a slower kick-off. Dobrzanski leads the second group ahead of Feldmann, Fiorentino, Nanadan and Famularo. Koller gets stuck along the track following some incident, and that prompts the safety car out.
The restart is given after two laps of neutralization, with Carrasquedo maintaining the lead over Yeh, Stack and De la Torre, while Herrera slips to fifth. The margins remain narrow throughout most of the race, with the first four covered by 3 seconds, while Trappa is the man climbing from the back up to seventh.
Close racing between Ferrazzano and Feldmann on one hand, and Castillo, Trappa and Koller, on the other, will be investigated but with no consequences.