This morning, Caio Collet grabbed the pole from Victor Martins on his final lap in what was an intense qualifying session on a drying track.

With his lap of 1:33.120s, the Brazilian driver led the ART Grand Prix trio of Victor Martins, Paul Aron and Grégoire Saucy and Amaury Cordeel (FA Racing), whose race was over before it even began with a technical problem on the installation lap.

When the lights went out, Caio Collet put in a perfect launch to hold on to the lead while Victor Martins dropped behind team-mate Paul Aron. The leader of the general classification had to use all his experience to re-pass the Estonian with an outside overtake at turn one on lap three.

From there, Victor Martins set off to chase down Caio Collet, who was now nearly three seconds up the road. Despite the Frenchman’s efforts, who reduced the gap with a series of fastest race laps, Caio Collet kept a cool head to take his third win of 2020.

In their duel with nearly identical lap times, the two title contenders pulled away from Paul Aron. The Mercedes Junior Team driver kept those behind at bay just until his race was cut short with a technical issue on lap 14. Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport) moved into the top three and made his first visit to the podium since the season-opening round at Monza despite the pressure from David Vidales (JD Motorsport), who started eighth on the grid.

Lorenzo Colombo (Bhaitech Racing) represented a fifth different team in the top five, finishing ahead of Petr Ptáček (R-ace GP) and Tijmen van der Helm (FA Racing), who overtook Grégoire Saucy on the last lap. Roman Stanek (MP Motorsport) scored two points in his first weekend in the category while William Alatalo (JD Motorsport) picked up the final point on offer.

Qualifying 2 - Starting grid - Race 2 - Drivers classification - Teams classification

The next round on the calendar will take the competitors to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (October 8-11) to begin the second half of the season which promises to be incredibly competitive with the duel taking shape at the top of the order and an extremely open field between the various contenders.

Quotes

Caio Collet (R-ace GP): "I am really happy as we were able to maximise everything we missed yesterday. Qualifying was the key today and half of the work was done in taking the pole. Then we had to focus on the start and the car was very consistent, especially at the end of the race. I only had to manage the gap with Victor and I would like to thank the team, God and my partners. It will be tight until the end between Victor and I and we will need more results like today!"

Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix): "It was another excellent weekend with a very fast car. We maximized our potential on Saturday, but I made a small mistake on my last lap in qualifying this morning. It cost me a lot as the track was improving every lap and it gave Caio the pole. I don’t really know what happened at the start, but I lost a place to Paul. When I got it back, Caio had already pulled away. I tried to come back, but I am still satisfied with these good points for the championship."

Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport): "I am very happy to be back on the podium, because it is exactly what we needed after our difficult weekend at Magny-Cours. I think we have made a step forward and I hope that we will be just as fast in Barcelona. The car was extremely good there last year, so I’m already looking forward to being there and scoring big points in the championship!"

David Vidales (JD Motorsport): "It was a good race. My pace was quite strong compared to my competitors today. We managed to overtake a few drivers and this is good for my learning curve as I also need some experience in the field. We are going to give it our all in Barcelona, because it is one of the few tracks I already know and I feel confident."

*Results subject to confirmation following technical and sporting checks.