FEATURE RACE: Rivera wins with charging drive at Spa

Ernesto Rivera was unstoppable on Sunday, claiming the Feature Race victory with an impressive drive to the top step.

The Campos Racing driver started from fourth on the grid, but was patient in the early stages before picking off his rivals to move into the lead past halfway, and was uncatchable from there.

Hiyu Yamakoshi claimed P2 for Van Amersfoort Racing, while Freddie Slater wound up third in the TRIDENT, as he cut the gap to Ugo Ugochukwu down to a single point in the Championship.

AS IT HAPPENED

Slater got a poor start from pole and it was Tuukka Taponen that led the field by Turn 1. Yamakoshi followed the Finn through to take second, while the polesitter recovered enough momentum to emerge from the first corner in third.

Yamakoshi then went wheel-to-wheel with Taponen approaching Les Combes and the Japanese driver swept into the lead of the race at Turn 5.

Ugochukwu ran into the gravel on the exit of Turn 7 after contact with teammate Theophile Nael. The Frenchman sustained front wing damage following earlier touch with ART Grand Prix's Taito Kato approaching Turn 5, and that caused him to understeer towards the Championship leader. Nael subsequently pitted for repairs, while Ugochukwu was left down in 10th position.

The Safety Car was deployed at the end of the first lap with AIX Racing's Yevan David in the gravel.

Racing resumed entering Lap 4 and Yamakoshi suffered a big slide at the penultimate corner to leave him under pressure from Taponen. But it was Slater on the move, diving to the inside of the Finn at La Source, though the MP driver was able to hold onto second with a better exit.

With DRS re-enabled on Lap 6, Ugochukwu completed a pass on Rodin Motorsport's Christian Ho, claiming P9 ahead of Turn 5 with the slipstream.

Lap 7 and Slater reproduced his title rival's move, taking P2 from Taponen on the run to Turn 5.

One lap later and the TRIDENT driver was back into the lead of the race with a move into Les Combes on Yamakoshi.

Onto Lap 9 and behind the leaders, Rivera dived to the inside of Taponen to claim third place at Turn 5. However, there was slight contact with the right-rear tyre of Yamakoshi, leaving the Campos with a missing front wing endplate.

Taponen was wide out of Turn 1 at the start of Lap 10, allowing Mattia Colnaghi to move ahead for fourth place on the run to Eau Rouge.

Fellow Red Bull Junior Team driver Rivera was up to second at Turn 5, repeating his move from the previous lap on Yamakoshi.

Lap 11 and Taponen was down to P6 as a charging Maciej Gladysz put himself into the top five at Turn 5. Ugochukwu dropped out of the points as Brando Badoer put a move on the American.

Bruno Del Pino and Jin Nakamura completed moves on the Campos driver at the start of Lap 12, while Rivera was on the attack with DRS up front. He cleared Slater on the run to Turn 5 to claim the lead of the race.

One lap later and Yamakoshi was attacking, clearing Slater after the Briton dropped out of DRS range to Rivera ahead.

Entering the penultimate lap and the fight for the lower points places was hotting up, as Alessandro Giusti, Jin Nakamura and Badoer exchanging places in eighth, ninth and 10th positions.

After taking the lead, nobody could catch Rivera, who claimed his maiden Feature Race victory and second win overall in his rookie season.

Yamakoshi claimed P2, while Slater was able to remain in the podium positions to take third.

Conaghi held Gladysz at bay on the final tour in the fight for fourth, while Kato finished P6.

Nakamura won the three-car fight with Giusti and Badoer, with the trio rounding out the points down to 10th place.

KEY QUOTE – Ernesto Rivera, Campos Racing

"In the end we managed to win it. A super fun race, a lot of overtaking, a lot of degradation but we managed to fight well, so super happy with this result."

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Ugo Ugochukwu remains the Championship leader on 104 points, but Freddie Slater is right behind him now on 103. Theophile Nael remains third on 65 points with Noah Stromsted fourth on 58. Ernesto Rivera's win moves him into the top five with 56 points.

Campos Racing lead the Teams' Standings on 225 points ahead of TRIDENT on 168 and Van Amersfoort Racing on 131. ART Grand Prix is fourth on 110 points with Rodin Motorsport fifth on 99 points.

UP NEXT

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