Dutch driver Robin Frijns took the first win at the new Moscow Raceway track Saturday, holding off Jules Bianchi for victory in the premier 3.5 class in the Renault World Series.
The race was the maiden competitive event for the four-kilometer circuit on the outskirts of Moscow, the eigth of the calendar for the series.
The result sees Frijns take the championship lead from Sam Bird of Britain, whom he leads by one point, while Bianchi made it three second places in a row.
"The feeling is great. Winning here for the first time on a new track for everybody is really good," Frijns said, before adding his impressions of the circuit.
"It's really hard to overtake here, even with the long straight."
Frijns' job as leader was made easier after incidents brought out the safety car twice, and he did just enough on a frantic final lap when three drivers collided on the final bend.
Bird took the third place on the podium after a solid race, ahead of France's Arthur Pic, Marco Sorensen of Denmark and Kevin Korjus of Estonia.
Everyone made it round the first corner safely, despite some rather erratic weaving near the back of the pack, and Frijns and Marco Sorensen, who started second, soon pulled away from a chasing pack of former Ferrari F1 test driver Bianchi, Bird and Pic.
Frijns, who demonstrated last year's Red Bull F1 car earlier in the day, was unable to lose Sorensen, who kept the gap at under a second by the halfway stage.
With 17 minutes left on the clock in the 45-minute race, Sorensen tried an ambitious move around the outside of the final corner but fell foul of the lack of grip on the new track and span.
As he span round to continue, Sorensen's rear tires threw up a cloud of smoke on the edge of the corner, and the approaching Bianchi was left completely unsighted, fortunate not to hit the near-stationary Sorensen.
The Dane dropped to sixth behind Bianchi, Bird and Pic, who all started to reel in Frijns, but the Dutchman's lead was then completely eliminated when the safety car came out with 12 minutes remaining.
A collision between Colombia's Carlos Huertas and Austria's Walter Grubmuller had left the track strewn with debris, giving rise to the safety car decision.
Frijns held off Bianchi at the restart, but the field was behind the safety car again within three minutes as Anton Nebylitsky's spin left him stranded in a dangerous position.
On the last lap, Kevin Magnussen, Alexander Rossi and Lucas Foresti collided on the final corner and all three failed to finish, handing ninth place to Russia's Daniil Move, the only local driver to break into the points.
Sunday sees the second race of the weekend and ninth of the series, when a pit stop is mandatory.
The Renault World Series is considered a proving ground for up-and-coming drivers and stepping stone to Formula One.
