McLaren junior driver Nyck de Vries claimed the final win of the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 season and of the championship itself ahead of its rebrand for next year.
Renault will no longer promote and run the series from 2016, handing control over to RPM Racing when it will become Formula 3.5.
Series champion Oliver Rowland started Sunday’s finale at Jerez on pole position, but a mistake on the first lap handed the lead to de Vries after the Dutchman made a flying start from third on the grid.
Rowland managed to rise up into second place after getting the undercut on Matthieu Vaxiviere and Egor Orudzhev, and closed up on de Vries at the front when a safety car period eradicated his ten second lead.
De Vries managed to control the gap to Rowland in the closing stages after the race restarted before crossing the line to record his first victory of the season with DAMS.
Rowland finished 2.5 seconds behind de Vries, narrowly edging out series vice-champion Matthieu Vaxiviere for second place at the line. The result saw Rowland pass the 300-point barrier and end the season with an advantage of 73 over Vaxiviere.
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In other news, RPM has published the provisional calendar for the 2016 Formula 3.5 Series season:
April 16-17 Aragon, Spain
April 23-24 Hungaroring, Hungary
May 21-22 Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
June 25-26 Paul Ricard, France
July 23-24 Silverstone, Great Britain
September 10-11 Red Bull Ring, Austria
October 1-2 Monza, Italy
October 29-30 Barcelona, Spain
November 5-6 Jerez, Spain