Gustav Malja drove to his first victory in Formula Renault where he managed his pole position in the best possible way and won the weekend's opening race of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC) at Hockenheim.

Malja - Supported by F1 team McLaren's talent development programs McLaren Performance Academy - ended up with the fastest time of the 25 driver field in Saturday's qualifying, and thus secured his first pole position in the highly competitive Formula Renault category. The 18-year-old junior driver then kept the lead from start to finish in this weekend's first of three races, and won a second and a half before the Englishman Ben Barnicoat.

Several of today's racing stars have competed in the European Formula Renault on their way to the top; including former F1 world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

- An incredibly nice feeling, exclaims Gustav Malja. My goal before this weekend was to win, and we managed that. I got a really good start and was able to open up a gap almost immediately, and then it was mostly about keeping my position to the finish. I am particularly pleased to also have taken my first pole position in Formula Renault; it certainly proves that the speed is there, even in qualifying trim. I have scored points in all three races this weekend - many points - and the team has done a great job with the car. Now we have to try to maintain this level going forward, and I'm really optimistic about the rest of the season!

In the weekend's second race Malja started in tenth after being held back by traffic in the second qualifying and took the checkered flag in ninth. In Sunday's Race 3 he progressed from sixth place on the grid - the result of the rules of reverse starting order among the top six in Race 1 - to fourth at the finish.

Next race:
June 27 to 29: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup - Moscow Raceway (Russia).