The first quarter of the race featured a thrilling duel between polesitter Laurens Van Hoepen and Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne, with Christian Mansell also keeping himself in the mix in the second ART.
On lap three, Stenshorne launched his attack on Van Hoepen, making a pass on the Dutchman at Turn 11, only for the latter to retake the position a few corners later.
Stenshorne and Van Hoepen traded positions again on the following tour before the Norwegian made what turned out to be the decisive move for the lead at Turn 1 on lap five.
Stenshorne then pulled away from the chasing pack in his Hitech, expanding his lead to 2.5s to put himself as the favourite for the win at the halfway point of the race.
But by this time Lindblad had already jumped from fifth to second place, having passed Mansell for a spot on the podium on lap six before snatching another position from Van Hoepen.
Lindblad then began to break into Stenshorne’s advantage and was able to bring the deficit down to just three tenths on lap 14, when the safety car was deployed to retrieve the stranded PHM of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, who was struck in the gravel trap at Turn 1 after an incident with Van Amersrfoort’s Tommy Smith.
The caution period allowed Stenshorne to regroup himself and the 18-year-old made a brilliant relaunch when the safety car peeled into the pits at the end of lap 16 to dissipate any immediate threat from Lindblad.
Lindblad did have a look on Stenshorne on lap 18, but the latter was able to build a margin for himself on the penultimate tour to take the chequered flag by 1.6s and score back-to-back wins for Hitech after Luke Browning’s success in the Bahrain feature race earlier this month.
Source: Autosport