The final day of action at the future host of the F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix began with an incredibly competitive qualifying session contested on a constantly improving track.

At the end of an intense battle and paced by lowering times with each lap, William Alatalo set a new track record for the category with a time of 1:40.095s to take his first pole position in the Formula Renault Eurocup on his final run.

The Finn also became the fourth different driver in as many races to start from pole. David Vidales lined up alongside on row one. Next it was Caio Collet, Alex Quinn and Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) with less than 0.04s separating P2 to P5.

Qualifying 2 - Starting grid

Vidales déjà-vu

David Vidales put in a perfect launch off the line to overtake William Alatalo and lead the field heading to the first corner. Meanwhile, Alex Quinn passed Caio Collet for third place as Victor Martin looked on. Paul Aron (ART Grand Prix) picked up two positions to slot into sixth place ahead of Franco Colapinto (MP Motorsport).

The two leaders quickly pulled away from the rest of the field before a safety car period caused by the retirement of Petr Ptáček (R-ace GP) on lap four. At the restart, David Vidales, William Alatalo and Alex Quinn created a gap to Caio Collet, who dropped a spot to Victor Martins on the next lap.

Gradually, David Vidales grew the margin from his team mate, who was followed closely by Alex Quinn just until the Englishman began to feel the pressure from Victor Martins as the battles intensified in the field.

On the last two laps of the race, David Vidales picked up the pace to take the win and become the first double winner this season. William Alatalo made it a 1-2 for JD Motorsport while Alex Quinn held off Victor Martins just until the chequered flag.

For a time threatened by Paul Aron, Caio Collet held on for fifth place to increase his lead in the general classification ahead of Franco Colapinto, who finished seventh. Ugo de Wilde (Arden Motorsport) finished eighth ahead of Tijmen van der Helm (FA Racing), who took ninth place from team-mate Amaury Cordeel (FA Racing) on the penultimate lap of the race.

Race 2 - Drivers classification - Teams classification

After a short summer pause, the Formula Renault Eurocup will be back in action at the Nürburgring (Germany) on September 3-6.

Quotes

David Vidales (JD Motorsport): "I can’t find the words to describe this first weekend in the Formula Renault Eurocup! I wanted to get off to a better start than yesterday. I managed to do that and that allowed me to take the lead immediately. After that, the pace was excellent thanks to the wonderful work of the team. I was able to widen the gap before and after the safety car to keep the lead. We’ll have to do the same at the Nürburgring. The aim now is to keep learning and score big points. Consistency will be the key!”

William Alatalo (JD Motorsport): “This is definitely not the result I was hoping for after my pole this morning. I’m really disappointed, but I’ll continue to work to repeat that kind of performance in qualifying and to get better starts. However, I am delighted with the 1-2 for JD Motorsport. The team did a fantastic job on both cars and I think we can aim for the same results at the Nürburgring!"

Alex Quinn (Arden Motorsport): "I wanted to push hard to get a good result before the break. I managed to get past Caio at the start to chase after the JD Motorsport cars. Unfortunately, the tyres degraded at the end and I then had to fight off Victor. However, I’m pleased to see that our work enabled us to progress throughout the week until we reached the podium. We are pretty consistent except for one retirement. I hope this result will give me the opportunity to strengthen some partnerships to be more confident right from the Nürburgring!”

*Results subject to confirmation following technical and sporting checks.