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Superb Will storms to Monza victory and championship lead

Will Palmer kicked off his 2017 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 title bid in the best possible fashion by storming to a dominant victory in the second race of the weekend during the opening round of the season at Monza in Italy on Sunday (23 April).

The BRDC SuperStar claimed the lead into the first turn after starting from the front-row and didn't look back from there as he finished three seconds up the road from his nearest rivals. His victory in the final encounter of the weekend capped a brilliant start to the year for the 20-year-old as he claimed a strong fourth place finish in Saturday's race one and now leads the Eurocup standings after the opening round.

After heading the timing screens on Friday, lapping well under lap record pace, Will headed into qualifying confident of carrying that speed into the rest of the weekend. In Saturday's qualifying, he set the second quickest time overall, just one tenth of a second shy of his R-ace GP team-mate Robert Shwartzman. By virtue of the split qualifying system, Will would line up in third thus heading the second row of the grid for the first Eurocup race of the season.

As the lights went out Will, who hails from Southwater, maintained that position through the first few corners before the safety car was deployed with Rodrigo Plufcker and Ghislain Cordeel clashing at the first Lesmo.

On the restart, Will fell victim to the slipstream drivers following the car in front get down the long start/finish straight at Monza, with Sacha Fenestraz passing the Brit into the first chicane. It was not long before racing was interrupted once more, with the safety car called for again when Chinese driver Sun Yue Yang came to grief.

The race went green with two laps remaining but any further progress Will could have made was halted when Red Bull Junior Neil Verhagen hit the barriers on the approach to the second chicane, bringing out the red flags. With the result taken from the previous lap, Will was classified fourth.

Sunday's action began with qualifying for race two of the weekend, with Will in the first group to qualify and thus battling slower track conditions. Nevertheless, he performed superbly to post the fastest time in his group, a 1m50.240s guaranteeing him a front-row start. Gabriel Aubry, running in the second and thus faster qualifying group, posted a time slightly quicker than Will's to take pole position.

As the race began, Will took full advantage of his front-row grid spot, shooting past Tech 1 Racing's Aubry on the run down to turn one to claim the lead. As he set about building a gap, the safety car was called upon on lap two with Alex Peroni and Gabriel Chaves tangling. Once the stricken cars were cleared away, the safety car pulled in to the pits and Will set about opening up his lead once again.

The 2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner was able to escape from the clutches of Aubry and had a comfortable lead heading into the closing stages of the race. Will's position became even more secure as a misjudged attempt to pass Aubry by race one winner Shwartzman ended up in contact and both drivers having to retire.

As the chequered flag came out, Will had increased his lead to over three seconds from Sacha Fenestraz and Max Defourny and claimed his second Eurocup victory and first of the 2017 season.

Speaking after the race, Will said: "It's been a strong opening weekend of the championship for me. The pace has been really good all week so to finish fourth on Saturday was ultimately a bit disappointing given that, even though it was still a good points haul.

"It was great to put that right today with a good lap in qualifying to put me P2 on the grid and then a perfect race to pull away and take the win. Now I'm looking forward to the next round on home ground at Silverstone where I'm confident we can have a very good weekend."

Will leads the overall standings on 37 points, one point ahead of Sacha Fenestraz with Robert Shwartzman and Max Defourny a further 11 points adrift in third and fourth respectively. 

The next round of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship takes place at Silverstone on 13/14 May.

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 - Monza, Italy - Race One Top-10

1. R Shwartzman, R-ace GP, 9 Laps
2. S Fenestraz, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +0.582s
3. G Aubry, Tech 1 Racing, +1.041s
4. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +1.695s
5. M Defourny, R-ace GP, +2.874s
6. A Peroni, Fortec Motorsports, +4.137s
7. H Chaves, AVF, +4.598s
8. M Fewtrell, Tech 1 Racing, +5.498s
9. Y Yifei, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +6.316s
10. R Verschoor, MP Motorsport, +7.142s

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 - Monza, Italy - Race Two Top-10

1. W Palmer, R-ace GP, 13 Laps
2. S Fenestraz, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +3.058s
3. M Defourny, R-ace GP, +3.202s
4. N Verhagen, MP Motorsport, +8.609s
5. T Maxwell, Tech 1 Racing, +8.797s
6. Y Yifei, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +8.867s
7. R Verschoor, MP Motorsport, +9.113s
8. M Fewtrell, Tech 1 Racing, +11.002s
9. A Vartanyan, JD Motorsport, +11.465s
10. R Guzman, R-ace GP, +11.629s

Latest Results

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain
Race 2

1.	G Alesi	16 laps
2.	A Hubert	+2.077s
3.	J Hughes	+2.376s
4.	J Correa	+3.295s
5.	D Boccolacci	+3.593s
6.	N Kari	+3.959s
7.	C Ilott	+4.904s
8.	S Laaksonen	+5.544s
9.	L Pulcini	+6.103s
13.	W Palmer	+12.603s

Latest Eurocup Standings

1.	S Fenestraz	367.5 points
2.	W Palmer	298 points
3.	R Shwartzman	285 points
4.	M Defourny	255 points
5.	G Aubry	232 points
6.	M Fewtrell	164 points
7.	D Ticktum	134 points
8.	Y Ye	106.5 points
9.	R Verschoor	89 points
10.	A Peroni	72 points