Renault World Series + Eurocup Finals - Barcelona

[N.A-D.R]

Here we go everyone. We already know who has won the world series this year. But the Eurocup has come down to 3 drivers fighting it out for the title in the final round this weekend! It is Daniel Ricciardo, Valteri Bottas and Roberto Merhi. It's going to be an awesome final.

Here is a live timing page.
http://intranetwsr.alkamelsystems.com/live.html


If anyone has or knows a stream for the races, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post here!

[chunterer]

As you say, a thrilling climax to the Eurocup, with 3 excellent future prospects in contention!!!

[N.A-D.R]

After Friday practice 1 and 2. Daniel Ricciardo set the overall fastest time out of both groups. Vatteri Bottas managed 2nd and Roberto Merhi only just making it into the top 10.

Daniels fastest time 1:45:221
Vatteris fastest time 1:45:661
Robertos fastest time 1:46:359

Qualifying and race 1 tomorrow!

[bella]

crap weather around the area at the moment, it's miserable and wet, the only difference from the uk being is that it's also quite warm at the same time.

if the weather does what its supposed to, it could well be a damp race tomorrow, and a drying track on sunday. could get quite interesting...

[N.A-D.R]

As Bella said, it is very wet for Qualifying for the Eurocup today. The fastest driver out of all Group A and B was Daniel Ricciardo by a huge margin, showing that he is not just fastest in the dry, he is also much faster then anyone in the wet. He is about 2.6 seconds faster then both Merhi and Bottas. Daniel is certainly showing he is the man to beat. SuperPole is in 1 hours time.

Daniels fastest time: 2:02:469
Valteris fastest time: 2:04:828
Robertos fastest time: 2:05:057

[N.A-D.R]

Daniel Ricciardo takes Pole as he dominates SuperPole. Daniel i believe has pole for race 1 and 2. Valtteri Bottas Can only manage 11th in SuperPole and Roberto Merhi in 18th... Quite a suprise that Only Daniel Ricciardo was fast enough for the top 10. This puts Daniel in the perfect position for the race wins and most importantly, the Title. Race 1 starts in around 1 hours time.

[N.A-D.R]

Bottas wins race 1 as weather changes and Daniel Ricciardo tyres get destroyed and can only manage 6th. The Motorpark Drivers of Bottas and Hagewald gambled with dry tyres and it payed off big time, a disarster for Daniel.

Race 2 Daniel is on pole and MUST win it. Valtteri starts 6th and only needs atleast a 4th place (i think) to secure the championship. But after race 1 with weather changes with Valtteri winning and Daniel on wrong tyres, anything can happen.

[Albeckinho]

Why I lol'd? It was just so funny to read these after being on few days vacation: "Ricciardo is so dominant, he sweeped floor with everyone in the qualifying, he's freaking walking on the water woohoo, Schumacher-esque performance, he's the man to beat for sure!" -> "Ooops, Daniel failed and Bottas took the win "

That's racing, lol.

EDIT: And oh, Bottas needs only 5th place to secure it, so hold on your hats!

[bella]

ricciardo failed spectacularly at the start... that's not how to win titles!

[Sev]

The comedy is strong in this thread

Quite a relief for Bottas to win it after the preaching (and I think he deserves it more as well). Go Valterri!

[bella]

in world series news, look for bonanomi's crash on youtube. it was epic, and so very fortunate.

the superpole pantomime would have been hilarious had it not got a bit chilly! i think the only one to complete one full lap was carbone, and even that was after a red flag had been thrown. by the time they'd recovered from the second or was it third red flag there was only 7 minutes on the clock, and with fast laptimes of 2m15ish and out laps of 3 mins at least it wasn't going to be worth it.

[runshaw]

My word thats the biggest crash i've seen this year! I can't really judge who was at fault, but Aleshin appeared to just keep squeezing him across the track until eventually Marco hit him. Never thought i'd see a car hitting that huge timing tower completely upside down at what must have been about 140mph! Thumbs up yet again on the safety side of things, that roll hoop took a pounding.

[N.A-D.R]

Originally Posted by Albeckinho

Why I lol'd? It was just so funny to read these after being on few days vacation: "Ricciardo is so dominant, he sweeped floor with everyone in the qualifying, he's freaking walking on the water woohoo, Schumacher-esque performance, he's the man to beat for sure!" -> "Ooops, Daniel failed and Bottas took the win "

That's racing, lol.

EDIT: And oh, Bottas needs only 5th place to secure it, so hold on your hats!

That was an arrogant post to be honest. You didn't need to do that.

Then track conditions were changing very quickly – the track dried up to a large extent, several drivers encountered problems with their setups and front tyres. Daniel Ricciardo was one of them, he soon lost position after position.
Valtteri Bottas however had no such problems, he improved from P5 to P1 in the final laps and was eventually able to take a win which might prove decisive.

Ricciardo in P6 lost precious points in the championship – now Daniel R. is trailing Bottas by 13 points already ahead of tomorrow’s final race.

A small comfort: Ricciardo will again start from pole position, Bottas from sixth.


Bottas: “The qualifying sessions were very disappointing. There was traffic when the track was at its best, and then the rain was awful. There was no choice but to be on the attack during the race. The car was terrific. I pushed it without calculating the risks. Tobias made a mistake in the last lap and I took advantage of it. The battle is far from over. We’ll have to give it 110% again tomorrow”.

Andrea Caldarelli: “At the end of the race the car was impossible to drive. We were maybe wrong about the tyre pressure, it felt as though two of the left tyres were flat by the end. It’s not down to luck, we were the fastest!”

Ricciardo: “I virtually had no front tyres left near the end of the race – we had unfortunately chosen the wrong setup for these conditions – and basically lost any chance.”


The SG formula boys making the wrong setup choices which cost them big time in the final laps.

[Croc]

I got the impression that Aleshin was inspired by Webber's manoeuvre last week to defend his position, good thing Bonanomi didn't get hurt.

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by Croc

I got the impression that Aleshin was inspired by Webber's manoeuvre last week to defend his position

Certainly looked similar didn't it. One big point being that Webber is probably around 10,000 times better than Mikhail! Marco was pulling out of his slip stream, but Aleshin just kept on moving right towards the pit exit/wall, and looked what happened! For the record, Bonanomi can't take part in race 2 because his car is too badly damaged. Also worth a mention is Tappy who once again puts it into the points for RC on his comeback. Albuquerque up there in 4th, he really should be in GP2.

[N.A-D.R]

That crash from the 3.5 formula renault world series was huge, lucky none of the carbon fibre hit anyone in the pitlane and of course the driver not hurt.

[N.A-D.R]

Daniel Ricciardo wins race 2 with Vallteri Bottas 4th, which makes him champion i believe(?). Well done to Bottas, a worthy champion. It was looking very scratchy for most of the race as Bottas was in 6th and could not overtake Monras. But with 6 minutes to go, hagewald (Bottas' team mate) slowed down very quickly from 4th to let his team-mate by to make him 5th which was good enough for Bottas to win the championship, and then later the next lap passed Monras for 4th.

This year it definatly showed there is some very talented drivers in the field. Will be good watching them for the future.

[chunterer]

Thanks for the news N.A-D.R

You're dead right, a classic season at this level.

I hope to get some highlights of this finale on some channel or other as it sounds like it was a real nailbiter!!

[wannab-aracer]

Bonanomi's was lucky to get away without serious injury. That was one hell of a crash.

I was pleased to see Esteban Guerrieri take his 1st victory for Ultimate.

[Mekola]

Me too.

[N.A-D.R]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Thanks for the news N.A-D.R

You're dead right, a classic season at this level.

I hope to get some highlights of this finale on some channel or other as it sounds like it was a real nailbiter!!

Yeah for sure, All season it was great racing, too bad i dont live in europe and get to watch it. I hope there is highlights somewhere.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by wannab-aracer

Bonanomi's was lucky to get away without serious injury. That was one hell of a crash.

I was pleased to see Esteban Guerrieri take his 1st victory for Ultimate.

Indeed, and yeah good news for Guerrieri, lets hope he gets a full season in WSR or maybe even GP2 next year?

[Albeckinho]

Interesting sidenote about Valtteri's race: he got food poisoning on Saturday evening and after 9pm he threw up all the night, last time 5am on Sunday morning so he didn't catch many hours of sleep. So even when ill, he was the best of Europe.

[Croc]

Whatever the championship final result, i'd still rate Bottas higher than Ricciardo, although i have to say that it must be heartbreaking for Ricciardo lose the championship after watching all his comfortably lead over Bottas disappear in the second half of the season. Despite an amazing opportunity when he captured both poles for the last round, specially the the first one with his opponents starting only from the middle of the grid, Ricciardo failed and Bottas put a classy drive, climbing the field and winning the race he pretty much decided the championship into his favor.

Congratulations to Bottas. I guess we'll hear even more about him from now on.

[Francis Albert]

Congratulations for the title Valtteri, totally deserved!