7
Isaakyan hits
the top in Stiria
After the Pau street course, the up-
and-down Red Bull Ring was the next
destination of the F.Renault ALPS
championship. The question for
everybody was if there was somebody
able to bead de Vries, and the answer
came with the name of Matevos
Isaakyan. This time, the Russian
emerged as the weekend’s dominator
and there was nothing others could do
to stop him. Despite he turned 16 just
a month ago, the JD Motorsport driver
became the youngest man to win a
Formula Renault 2.0 race. Once put
the helmet on, the shy and silent
youngster turned into a merciless
racer. After scoring the pole, he won
both the races in Stiria in a
spectacular fashion. In both cases, he
was off to a great start and then
focused in gaining enough margin to
control the race until the end. His only
minor mistake came in Race 1 when
de Vries got close and attacked. The
Russian responded tough and was
back in the hunt, cruising to win.
George Russell ended up in second
after showing great pace since the
early practice. The Brit stayed for the
whole race in close pursuit of De
Vries, but then when his team-mate
slowed down after his failed attack, he
took full advantage of a move that put
him on the second step of the
podium. De Vries got third place that
collected valuable points anyway. In
Race 2 Alessio Rovera was, alongside
the winner, one of the most impressive
drivers. After showing his good
potential in qualifying, the Varese-
based man made a rookie error in
Race 1 and ended up 6th behind wild-
card Ignazio D’Agosto. In Race 2, he
went for a prompt rebound, keeping
the pedal to the metal at the start and
grabbing the second place he held
until the end. He preceded
championship leader De Vries who got
two podiums out of what has been his
worst weekend so far. In Austria,
Charles Leclerc took two impressive
fourth places while Luke Chudleigh,
fifth in Race 1, and growing Prema
man Alex Bosak raised some
eyebrows too. Driving the BVM
Tatuus, Dario Capitanio ended up with
two eight-place finishes.
Martin Kodric
Matevos Isaakyan, Russell and De Vries at Spielberg
