Da Costa holds off Magnussen to win

Antonio Felix da Costa sustained race-long pressure from Kevin Magnussen to win the second Formula Renault 3.5 race of the weekend at Monza.

The Red Bull junior came out on top in a frantic scrap for the lead in the opening laps, as he, race-one winner Stoffel Vandoorne and Magnussen all traded places at the front.

Vandoorne snatched the lead from polesitter da Costa at the start, but da Costa grabbed it back with a pass at the first chicane on lap two.

Fortec driver Vandoorne had skipped the second part of the chicane after trying to defend on the brakes, and he fell behind da Costa and Magnussen on the exit.

Da Costa then fended off an attack from Magnussen into the second chicane, only to give the Dane a chance by running wide on the exit of Lesmo 2.

Magnussen waited until the Parabolica to make his move, swooping around the outside to take the lead.

But his time at the front was short-lived, as da Costa passed him on the outside into Turn 1.

From then on the top two pulled away from Vandoorne and the chasing pack, with Magnussen never letting da Costa’s lead above 1.2 seconds.

But the leader didn’t put a wheel wrong under all that pressure, while Magnussen had to back off on the penultimate lap and take second after his sidepod started to come loose.

Vandoorne took a lonely third, while Arthur Pic put in a charging drive from 16th on the grid to take fourth ahead of Nico Muller.

Oliver Webb was on course for sixth place, but he toured across the line in ninth with damage to the left rear of his car.

Results – 29 laps:
 
Pos Driver                  Team               Time/Gap
  1. Antonio F. da Costa     Arden Caterham     46m24.405s
  2. Kevin Magnussen         DAMS               + 2.767s
  3. Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec             + 5.922s
  4. Arthur Pic              AV Formula         + 11.600s
  5. Nico Muller             Draco              + 16.805s
  6. Norman Nato             DAMS               + 28.467s
  7. Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham     + 29.106s
  8. Christopher Zanella     ISR                + 37.524s
  9. Oliver Webb             Fortec             + 41.314s
 10. Mihai Marinescu         Zeta Corse         + 51.737s
 11. Nigel Melker            Tech 1             + 52.018s
 12. M.Stockinger            Lotus              + 52.250s
 13. Andre Negrao            Draco              + 52.921s
 14. Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1             + 1m01.439s
 15. Yann Cunha              AV Formula         + 1m06.629s
 16. Carlos Huertas          Carlin             + 1m09.426s
 17. Emmanuel Piget          Zeta Corse         + 1m11.811s
 18. Marco Sorensen          Lotus              + 1 lap
 19. Sergey Sirotkin         ISR                + 3 laps
 20. Zoel Amberg             Pons               + 3 laps
 
Retirements:
 
    Daniil Move             Comtec              23
     Will Stevens            P1                  17
     N.Martsenko             Pons                17
     Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin              6
     Lucas Foresti           Comtec              0
     Matias Laine            P1                  0
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/da-costa-holds-off-magnussen-to-win

Cuth Harrison Brian Hart Gene Hartley Masahiro Hasemi Naoki Hattori