The track was completely dry for the start of the inaugural Formula Renault 2.0 Pau Trophy. Matt Parry (Fortec Motorsports) started on pole in front of Jake Dennis and Oliver Rowland (Manor MP Motorsport), having won yesterday’s qualifying race.

Dennis and Rowland both pushed Parry hard from the start, but the Caterham DDP driver resisted and held his lead. Behind the front three Bruno Bonifacio (Prema Powerteam) overtook Matthieu Vaxivière (Tech 1 Racing), while Pierre Gasly (Tech 1 Racing) found his way past Luca Ghiotto. Alfonso Celis (Fortec Motorsports), meanwhile, had an early end to his race and brought out the safety car after colliding with Egor Orudzhev.

Jake Dennis piled the pressure on Matt Parry at the restart, and the pair then collided on the climb towards Pont Oscar. The incident prompted the race directors to bring out the red flag, and the teams were able to repair their damage on the starting grid.

The race resumed behind the safety car, with Pierre Gasly installed as the new leader. Matthieu Vaxivière went on the attack and lost control of his car at Parc Beaumont, but Matt Parry was just able to avoid him. Marc Cattaneo, meanwhile, was forced to retire after going off the track.

Pierre Gasly then set about stretching his lead over Luca Ghiotto. But the Frenchman, along with Bruno Bonifacio, was promptly hit with a drive-through penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag. Gasly tried to delay his punishment for as long as possible, but earned a black flag for his troubles and was disqualified from the race.

Luca Ghiotto crossed the finish line in first ahead of Egor Orudzhev and Jake Dennis, with the latter having fought long and hard to stay in front of Oliver Rowland. Matt Parry completed the top five, followed by Bruno Bonifacio, Tristan Papavoine and Nicolas Pironneau

What they said

Luca Ghiotto: "I managed to stay in touch with Gasly after the start, but the tyres lost a lot of performance after seven laps. This is a difficult sport, both financially and in other respects, and I hope this victory will help me in the future. I also hope to return to Pau next year, in whichever category that may be."

Egor Orudzhev: "I didn’t make a good start and I found myself between two other drivers. When [Alfonso] Celis approached, he touched me but I didn’t sustain any damage to my front wing. I managed to carry on, steer clear of danger and take second place."

Jake Dennis: "My start was pretty good. At the restart, my team-mate pushed me against the wall and I touched it, before rebounding back against into him. The other drivers managed to get past us. The team did a great job to repair the car during the interruption to the race. All things considered, I’m satisfied with third."

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