Jazeman Jaafar claimed his first win of the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 season on Sunday by taming the streets of Monaco to catapult himself into the lead of the feeder championship.
As the leading event of the World Series by Renault package, Formula Renault 3.5 has launched the careers of many young drivers including Kevin Magnussen, Stoffel Vandoorne and Daniel Ricciardo.
Monaco is the only round of the season that does not comprise of two races, making victory all the more unique around the famed street circuit.
Starting from pole position, Jaafar managed to hold on to the lead despite coming under pressure from Oliver Rowland, only for the Briton to suffer a puncture after contact with Matthieu Vaxiviere and drop down the field.
The race had to be red flagged after a huge accident involving Bruno Bonifacio and Meindert van Buuren. Although both drivers were deemed to be okay after a check at the medical centre, the barrier took some time to repair.
Once the race restart, Jaafar managed to pull away from the chasing pack to claim his first win of the 2015 season and move into the lead of the championship.
“A win at Monaco is really special,” Jaafar said. “I’m still buzzing! We had a problem that blocked us for a long time in the pit lane before the race, but as has been the case all weekend, the team did an amazing job to fix it.
“I had a really low-profile start, it was very tight with Oliver, but I managed to stay in front. Then, I quickly pulled away from Dean and all the hard work has paid off.”
British driver Dean Stoneman managed to finish the race in second place in his first race around the streets of Monaco, whilst Tom Dillman completed the podium.
In spite of his puncture, Rowland managed to fight his way through the field to finish in sixth place, meaning that he remains within one point of the lead of the championship.
The World Series by Renault moves on to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium next weekend for a full weekend of running.
