Louis Deletraz grabbed the first Formula Renault NEC 2.0 win of the season at Monza this afternoon.
Ukyo Sasahara took 2nd place after he won a mid-race battle with Andrea Pizzitola, who would eventually complete the podium.
The Swiss racer led from start and refused to give up the front thereafter, during which he built up a respectable lead of 3.4s.
From there, Deletraz eased off somewhat, allowing Sasahara to get within one second of the lead, but such was Deletraz’ command, his position at the front was never in doubt.
Where Deletraz made it appear almost easy, for Sasahara, the opposite was true. The Japanese racer bogged down slightly off the line, gifting Pizzitola 2nd spot into the Rettifilo chicane. Sasahara pressed Pizzitola for several laps, with the Euronova racer eventually pushing through on lap four.
In his attempted fight back, Pizzitola ran wide at the Lesmo, and was punished by a tentative Liam Amweg. The Swiss Amweg could not hold the position though and Pizzitola retook the 3rd spot on lap six, holding the place thereafter.
Dislodged from his podium spot, Amweg faced a rearguard action from Steijn Schothorst until the flag, but held the Dutch racer at bay. Alexander Albon claimed 6th from Stefan Riener, when the latter retired from action on lap ten – an end that also promoted Kevin Joerg (7th), Raoul Owens (8th), Ben Barnicoat (9th) and Gregor Ramsey (10th).
There were a number of minor incidents on the opening lap, result in a few cars spun around, while Philip Morin crashed his Manor MP entry at the Lesmo during the tenth lap.
2014 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC (Rd 1, Race 1, Monza) Pos Driver Team Time / Gap 1. Louise Deletraz Josef Kaufmann Racing 25:57.545s (14 laps) 2. Ukyo Sasahara Euronova +0.822 3. Andrea Pizzitola Manor MP +3.568 4. Levin Amweg ART Junior Team +4.946 5. Steijn Schothorst Manor MP +5.780
