Toronto, Canada (May 15, 2011) – Robert Wickens proved he had the pace to challenge for victory this weekend but the Toronto racer was left thwarted by a pair of retirements as Round 3 of the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series visited Italy’s Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
A double ‘DNF’ was scant reward having started Saturday’s race from the front-row and subsequently led the event before his first retirement courtesy of clutch problems. Robert then dominated qualifying for Sunday’s race, but was stripped of his pole because of a grid penalty applied for an on-track incident in Race 1.
His bad luck then followed him into Race 2, in which he was tagged into a spin by a rival’s car and consigned to his second non-score of the weekend. As a result he loses the lead of the championship, dropping to third after a weekend to forget.
A packed Saturday schedule, consisting of Race 1 qualifying, Race 1 and Race 2 Qualifying, ensured a busy day for the Canadian who assumed the points lead after a win and second place last time out in Belgium. Cesar Ramos kicked off the action with the closest qualifying session of the season, the Brazilian capturing the first pole with a 1m36.253s lap. Wickens would take the start of Saturday’s race alongside him on the grid, his third front-row start in five races.
The afternoon’s 28-lap race produced plenty of excitement as the 26-strong pack was unleashed on the 5.73km Italian circuit. Dropping a spot at the start, Robert successfully defended third and ensured, along with the lead group that Ramos wouldn’t be allowed to dominate. Ramos and Wickens would ultimately come together at the first chicane fighting for second on the ninth lap – eventual winner, Kevin Korjus, having assumed the lead by this point.
Robert snatched second and took the lead from Korjus at the same spot a handful of laps later after his rival locked up. Robert’s hopes of victory were quickly dashed when clutch problems forced the 22-year-old into immediate retirement on the next lap. Jean Eric Vergne joined Korjus on the podium, in second, with Daniil Move rounding out the top three finishers.
Wickens, a race winner at the track the year before in the GP3 Series, bounced back from his retirement and stormed his way to the pole in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session for Race 2 – but it was to be stripped away from him thanks to a four-place grid penalty awarded after the first race for allegedly causing an avoidable accident after his clash with Ramos.
Undeterred, Robert started fifth on Sunday morning and quickly worked his way into third. As he was the day before, he was comfortable with his pace and was biding his time for an attack on the leaders. Unfortunately contact with Spain’s Albert Costa at the second chicane spun him out and Robert’s hopes of a podium to salvage something from the weekend were gone. Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo won the race followed by Alexander Rossi and Jean Eric Vergne.
“It’s definitely been a bit of an emotional weekend with big ups and big downs,” said Wickens candidly on Sunday afternoon. “I’m hoping we’ve now had our ‘bad weekend’ and we can focus on getting the points lead back. It’s a shame actually as we were clearly competitive here, the car was fast but we can’t always get a weekend like the one we had at Spa. We’ll put our heads down, continue to work hard and we’ll be back in Monaco!”
Round 4 of the ‘World Series by Renault’ heads to the famed streets of Monte Carlo and onto the support race billing to the Monaco Grand Prix, Saturday 28th – Sunday 29th May. For further information on the World Series by Renault please log on to: www.worldseriesbyrenault.com
About Robert Wickens:
Robert Wickens (22) is recognized as one of the brightest Canadian driving talents to have emerged in recent years with a track record of success forged on both sides of the Atlantic leading him well placed on the path to Formula One. A multiple karting champion in North America, Wickens won the 2006 Formula BMW USA title before graduating, and winning races in the Formula Atlantic Series the following year. Chasing his F1 dream, Robert moved to Europe in 2008 winning races in both the World Series by Renault and the F3 Euro Series.
He raced his way to the runner-up spot in the FIA F2 Championship in 2009, again a multiple race-winner, before tackling the 2010 GP3 Series. Another strong title-challenging campaign saw Robert claim the runner-up position but more importantly, his 2010 efforts attracted the backing of Marussia Motors – Russia’s first supercar manufacturer and an owner in the Marussia Virgin F1 team.
About Marussia Motors:
Founded in 2007 by former racing driver Nikolay Fomenko, renowned brand strategist Efim Ostrovsky and award-winning technology entrepreneur Andrey Cheglakov, the creation of Russia’s first high-performance car company is a remarkable story of vision, focus, innovation and ambition. The dramatic mid-engined B1 design, was first unveiled in Moscow in 2008, followed by the launch of the Marussia B2 in the autumn of 2009 – with these designs, the Russian supercar had arrived. In 2010 the company partnered with Virgin Racing F1 and at the end of the season Marussia Motors acquired a majority stake in the team – now called Marussia Virgin Racing – www.marussiamotors.ru / www.virginracing.com
About Formula Renault 3.5 Series:
The Formula Renault 3.5 Series has been successful in launching several drivers directly into Formula One with the notable stand-outs including 2010 Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel, as well as Grand Prix winner Robert Kubica. Both Vettel and Kubica made their F1 starts graduating straight from successful seasons competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series – part of the ‘World Series by Renault’ package. In 2011 the series sees 26 cars competing in 17 races across 9 of Europe’s leading circuits including the likes of Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Monza (Italy), Silverstone (UK) and Monaco – www.worldseriesbyrenault.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment