The World Series by Renault completed Rounds 6 & 7 of the 2010 season last weekend in Brno. Czech racer Filip Salaquarda earned the pole position for both races, showcasing his speed on his ‘home’ track by topping 23 other drivers. In race mode, Esteban Guerrieri proved invincible sweeping both races over the weekend.
The hard charger from Round 6 was Stefano Coletti, who finished 17th after starting 9th. Following the weekend’s race, Coletti topped all competitors in a post-race test at Brno with a fast lap of 1:40.804.
On Sunday, Albert Costa had the most drive, picking up eight positions in 24-laps to finish 10th, earning hard charger honors.
World Series by Renault
Brno, Czech Republic
Complete Results
Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo earned his first career Formula Renault 3.5 victory over the weekend in Monaco. Ricciardo, 20, led from start to finish after qualifying on pole Saturday. Championship leader Mikhail Aleshin finished second 1.093 seconds behind Ricciardo. Spaniard Albert Costa picked up his first career podium, finishing third.
American Alexander Rossi started the race fifth but eventually dropped out of the race after making contact with the tire barriers. Despite the disappointing result, Rossi impressed a number of people with his sheer speed at Monaco. He acclimated to the car very quickly, setting the third quickest lap in Thursday’s free practice.
Colombian Omar Leal earned the hard charger honors at Monaco for the second consecutive year. Leal, 20, drove from last on the grid (24th) to finish 16th, improving 8 positions in 31-laps.
The World Series by Renault competitors return to action June 4-6, 2010 at Brno.
American Alexander Rossi will make his World Series by Renault debut this weekend on the streets of Monaco. Rossi was third quick in this morning’s free practice. He was the fastest rookie driver in attendance, with a lap of 1:28.814, just 0.882 shy of Sten Pentus (1:27.932) – who set the fastest overall time and was the only driver to break into the 1:27 range.
It’s likely Rossi is just using this one-off opportunity to get used to all the unique undulations and attributes of the Monaco street circuit, while picking up some additional seat time. The 18-year-old phenom will be driving for ISR, a team he drove for last season in International Formula Master.
The Formula Renault 3.5 qualifying session will get underway on Saturday, May 15, with the race scheduled to take place Sunday, May 16.
- World Series by Renault
(photo-Renault-Sport)
The Formula Renault 3.5 drivers completed Rounds 3 & 4 of the 2010 World Series by Renault championship this past weekend in Belgium at Spa. Both races were riddled with penalties.
Despite battling a flu-bug, Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin won pole position in Round 3 qualifying. Aleshin went on to win the race by just over six seconds ahead of Sten Pentus. Stefano Coletti finished third in his first time back to Spa since his massive crash in GP2 last season. He suffered a fractured sternum in the incident, which occurred last August.
The hard charger in Round 3 was Greg Mansell. Mansell drove from 16th on the grid to finish 5th, improving 11 positions in 22-laps, albeit with some help from race officials. Jon Lancaster originally came home fifth, however he passed Jan Charouz by cutting the final chicane. Realizing his wrong, he allowed Charouz to retake the position. Stewards originally decided that giving up the position was good enough, however a protest by Greg Mansell changed the ruling. Lancaster was given a 10-second penalty at the finish – relegating him to 9th in the final tally. In a separate incident, Anton Nebylitskiy was penalized 10-seconds for contact with Nathanael Berthon, dropping him to 10th overall. He was originally classified as finishing 6th, just ahead of Mansell.
In Round 4, American Jake Rosenzweig put his Carlin entry on pole position in wet conditions. It was his first career pole position in the car ranks. Rosenzweig did more than qualify on pole though, he dominated the field by lapping a full 1.382 seconds faster than his nearest competitor. The 21-year-old American is hoping for a break-through year in Formula Renault 3.5 competition and it looks like he is well on his way to doing just that.
Sunday’s race was won by Esteban Guerrieri – who simultaneously won the hard charger award in the race by driving from 12th on the grid to win. Guerrieri improved 11 positions in 17-laps. It’s only fair to note that several drivers received drive-through penalties during the race aiding Guerrieri’s come-from-behind-win. Regardless, it was a solid performance in less than ideal conditions. Daniel Zampieri and Stefano Coletti finished second and third, respectively.
Honorable mention should go to Omar Julian Leal who suffered a big crash in qualifying and returned to the grid finishing 12th after starting 23rd. Leal improved 11 positions during the 17-lap event.
The World Series by Renault completed Round 1 & 2 of the 2010 season last weekend at the Motorland Aragon circuit – which is located near Alcaniz, Spain.
Mikhail Aleshin, 22, claimed his second-career win in a Formula Renault 3.5 car on a wet racetrack to open the 2010 season. Nelson Panciatici improved the most positions during the race by driving from 13th to 5th in race 1. He improved 8 positions in the 21-lap event.
Sten Pentus, 28, put together a solid race in Round 2 to earn his first career Formula Renault 3.5 victory. Pentus has been steadily improving, so it was nice to see him come away with a victory. Victor Garcia put together a nice run to finish 10th in Round 2 after qualifying 23rd. He improved 13 positions in the 26-lap event.
Honorable mention should go to Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo who finished both races on the podium (3rd, 2nd) and exits the weekend leading the overall championship.
Full Results- World Series by Renault
Motorland Aragon- Round 1 & 2
Bertrand Baguette, 24, who won the 2009 World Series by Renault Championship, has signed with Conquest Racing for a full campaign in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series.
I’m a little surprised to see Baguette abandon the traditional path to F1, but this is a really good signing for Conquest. Baguette will join teammate and fellow IndyCar rookie Mario Romancini under the Conquest tent in 2010.
Last season, in World Series by Renault competition, Baguette finished the year with 5 wins, 1 pole position and 10 podiums while driving for Draco Racing.
I’m a little behind on some World Series by Renault news. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been going on…
Red Bull junior driver Jean Eric Vergne has committed to running in the World Series by Renault with SG Formula in 2010. His main focus this season will be British F3–where he will be driving for Carlin— but, he plans to run both series. The two championships only have one overlapping date (May 1-2, 2010), where the Formula Renault 3.5 competitors will be running at Spa-Francorchamps and the British F3 pilots (including Vergne) will be competing at Silverstone. Vergne should do pretty well with SG Formula this season. He had a really solid test with the team back in October at Motorland Aragon where he topped the time charts in two consecutive sessions. More recently, he was the quickest WSR driver at the Jerez test. Vergne finished runner-up in the 2009 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup with 4 wins, 4 pole positions and 8 podiums. He will be teamed with Marcos Martinez at SG Formula this season.
Sten Pentus will return to the series in 2010 with Fortec Motorsport. Pentus has kind of flown under the radar for many, but he did put in a few memorable performances during his rookie campaign in Formula Renault 3.5 last year. Last October, I wrote this about Pentus…
Sten Pentus continues to impress. The 27-year-old Estonian driver earned another ‘hard charger’ award this weekend after improving 13 positions in Round 17 of the World Series by Renault. I haven’t documented every result this year, but I have Pentus down for three previous ‘hard charger’ awards: Silverstone (improved 8 positions), Spa (improved 9 positions), and Catalunya (improved 17 positions).
It will be fun to watch Pentus progress in 2010 and I expect we will see even more improvement from the 28-year-old Estonian driver. Over the winter, Sten has been competing in the New Zealand Toyota Racing Series (TRS) where he has logged 2 wins and 7 podiums in 12 starts.
Daniel Zampieri, 19, has committed to running the 2010 World Series by Renault with Pons Racing. The young Italian driver, who won the 2009 Italian F3 Championship, is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Zampieri has a ton of potential and should do real well this season under the guidance of both Ferrari and Pons Racing. He just recently topped the time charts in the opening day of the Jerez test. During the winter months, he ran six races for Rapax in the GP2-Asia series logging a best finish of 8th at Bahrain.
You can view the results from the WSR Jerez test here.
Jake Rosenzweig
American Jake Rosenzweig has re-signed with Carlin to compete in the 2010 World Series by Renault. The 20-year-old drove for Trevor Carlin, Carlin Team Boss, last season in the Formula 3 Euro Series.
Aside from a stellar weekend at Zandvoort, Jake had a fairly tough year in 2009, one that was laden with DNF’s. His average finish (in races completed) was 13.69. His best finish of the season, in F3 Euro Series competition, was 3rd. He qualified off-pole for that race.
Jake has shown a tremendous amount of potential. Personally, I would have liked to have seen him run another season in the Formula 3 Euro Series. I’m still waiting for that break-out year from him.
His most recent racing endeavors include running two races in the GP2-Asia series with Super Nova Racing. Additionally, he spent some time in the sports car ranks driving in the British Porsche Carrera Cup.
Mikhail Aleshin announced that he will return to Formula Renault 3.5 competition in 2010 with Carlin. This will be his fourth full-season in the World Series by Renault.
The 22-year-old Russian driver spent last season in the FIA Formula 2 championship where he compiled 1 win, 5 podiums, and 13 top-ten finishes en route to 3rd in the overall championship. During his three previous seasons in Formula Renault 3.5 with Carlin, he logged six podiums and one win (Monza-2007).
He should do pretty well in 2010 as he (at least at this point) will be the most experienced driver in the field. He had 6 top-five finishes during his 2008 FR 3.5 season and his average finishing position, excluding two DNF’s, was 8.4.
Spaniard Victor Garcia has signed with KMP Racing for the 2010 World Series by Renault. He will join Anton Nebylitskiy who signed with the team early last month.
Garcia spent the bulk of last season in British F3-International competition where he logged 11 top-ten finishes. His best finish was 3rd at Spa-Francorchamps after starting the race in 13th position.
