World Series by Renault, Round 9 - Barcelona

[WSR Fan]

Right then, the final round of the World Series this weekend see's the teams travel to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, where the 2007 champion will finally be crowned.

Alvaro Parente goes into the weekend with a 22-point lead over Ben Hanley, with a maximum of 35 points still on offer. Parente's team, Tech 1 Racing, hold a comfortable 33-point lead over International DracoRacing and look odds on to take the Teams' title this weekend.

After missing last weekend's round in Estoril due to being diagnosed with diabetes, Charlie Kimball looks set to miss the season finale in Barcelona as well. Victory Engineering have yet to name a replacement to partner Giedo van der Garde.

The new-for-2008 Dallara World Series car is also due to make a demonstration run over the weekend.


Weekend Schedule

Friday 26th October

09:00 - 09:45 - First Free Practice
13:20 - 14:05 - Second Free Practice

Saturday 27th October

09:35 - 09:55 - Qualifying (Group A)
10:00 - 10:20 - Qualifying (Group B)
14:40 - Race 1 (26 laps)

Sunday 28th October

13:00 - Race 2 (26 laps)

(All times are Barcelona local time)

[WSR Fan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/63646

British F3 racer Alberto Valerio will replace Charlie Kimball at Victory Engineering for this weekend, although due to other commitments he will miss Friday's Practice sessions, so his first track action will be Saturday morning Qualifying.

[OJB]

Parente and Hanley quickest in P1.

Interestingly, Giorgio Mondini is driving the Eurointernational car this weekend and there is no sign of Aleshin on the times either.

[bluelite]

Aleshin was not allowed to drive in the first testing sessions as he raced here in GP2 at the beginning of the season.

[WSR Fan]

Apparently the first session was a little wet, so the second session times below were the fastest of the day:

1 - Miguel Molina - Pons - 1'32"886
2 - Julien Jousse - Tech 1 - 1'33"225
3 - Alvaro Parente - Tech 1 - 1'33"393
4 - Guillaume Moreau - KTR - 1'33"526
5 - Milos Pavlovic - Draco - 1'33"649
6 - Ben Hanley - Prema - 1'33"691
7 - Giedo Van der Garde - Victory - 1'33"750
8 - Alejandro Nunez - Comtec - 1'33"754
9 - Fairuz Fauzy - Cram - 1'33"808
10 - Filipe Albuquerque - Epsilon - 1'33"863
11 - Davide Valsecchi - Epsilon - 1'33"948
12 - Pippa Mann - Cram - 1'33"998
13 - Carlos Iaconelli - Pons - 1'34"003
14 - Salvador Duran - Interwetten - 1'34"010
15 - James Walker - Fortec - 1'34"070
16 - Marco Bonanomi - RC - 1'34"235
17 - Alvaro Barba - Draco - 1'34"339
18 - Robert Wickens - Carlin - 1'34"457
19 - Daniil Move - Interwetten - 1'34"544
20 - Michael Herck - Comtec - 1'34"559
21 - Frederic Vervisch - GD - 1'34"618
22 - Bertrand Baguette - KTR - 1'34"707
23 - Pasquale Di Sabatino - GD - 1'35"049
24 - Richard Philippe - Fortec - 1'35"267
25 - Mikhail Aleshin - Carlin - 1'35"574
26 - Clivio Piccione - RC - 1'35"689
27 - Xavier Maassen - Prema - 1'36"146
28 - Giorgio Mondini - Eurointernational - 1'36"524
29 - Julian Theobald - Eurointernational - 1'37"849

Wouldn't it be brilliant if Molina won in front of his home fans this weekend (and with the form he's in at the moment I wouldn't bet against it). Good effort by Pippa Mann and Cram Competition too.

[JamesRamone]

Poor time by Aleshin, I had high hopes from him earlier in the season, but he seems to have drifted off.

[OJB]

Molina should really be the driver to beat this weekend I think - he carries Circuit di Catalunya backing on the side of his car after all! Also, he scored for GD Racing there last year with little experience of arguably the least competitive car on the grid.

Molina could be an outside bet for the title next year me thinks... If he doesn't get snapped up by GP2 that is.

Lets see if GD, Victory and Eurointernational can end their WSR stint on a high too

[P3ndula]

[P3ndula]

[strider]

So Duran will be on provisional pole then, almost a second faster than Molina in his group, which is a lot. Wonder if the time will stand...

Parente sharing the front row.

[OJB]

I'll guess it is pretty wet if the times are 20secs slower than they were in practice. Four more points for Parente and 15th on grid for Hanley, means Parente is pretty much a dead cert for the title this weekend now surely.

[strider]

Combined qualifying times:

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time
 1.  Salvador Duran        Interwetten.com      1:53.494
 2.  Alvaro Parente        Tech 1 Racing        1:53.734  + 0.240
 3.  Miguel Molina         Pons Racing          1:54.422  + 0.928
 4.  Milos Pavlovic        International Draco  1:54.458  + 0.964
 5.  Mikhail Aleshin       Carlin Motorsport    1:54.534  + 1.040
 6.  Robert Wickens        Carlin Motorsport    1:55.470  + 1.976
 7.  Giedo van der Garde   Victory Engineering  1:54.565  + 1.071
 8.  Alvaro Barba          International Draco  1:55.713  + 2.219
 9.  Guillaume Moreau      KTR                  1:54.716  + 1.222
10.  Bertrand Baguette     KTR                  1:55.801  + 2.307
11.  Alejandro Nunez       Comtec               1:54.816  + 1.322
12.  Davide Valsecchi      Epsilon Euskadi      1:55.837  + 2.343
13.  Felipe Albuquerque    Epsilon Euskadi      1:55.106  + 1.612
14.  Frederic Vervisch     GD Racing            1:55.977  + 2.483
15.  Benjamin Hanley       Prema Powerteam      1:55.272  + 1.778
16.  Carlos Iaconelli      Pons Racing          1:56.378  + 2.884
17.  Richard Philippe      Fortec Motorsport    1:55.508  + 2.014
18.  Marco Bonanomi        RC Motorsport        1:56.473  + 2.979
19.  Pippa Mann            Cram Competition     1:56.311  + 2.817
20.  Fairuz Fauzy          Cram Competition     1:56.506  + 3.012
21.  Pasquale Di Sabatino  GD Racing            1:56.775  + 3.281
22.  Michael Herck         Comtec               1:56.535  + 3.041
23.  James Walker          Fortec Motorsport    1:56.880  + 3.386
24.  Julien Jousse         Tech 1 Racing        1:56.536  + 3.042
25.  Xavier Maassen        Prema Powerteam      1:57.614  + 4.120
26.  Giorgio Mondini       EuroInternational    1:58.019  + 4.525
27.  Alberto Valerio       Victory Engineering  1:57.903  + 4.409
28.  Clivio Piccione       RC Motorsport        1:58.108  + 4.614
29.  Julian Theobald       EuroInternational    1:59.625  + 6.131
30.  Daniel Move           Interwetten.com      1:58.915  + 5.421

[P3ndula]

[OJB]

Parente is the champion and Molina wins again - that pretty much finished as expected!

Hanley has to watch out for Pavlovic now for runner-up spot, although he will start R2 from front row.

[WSR Fan]

Woo hoo! Not only does Parente win the title but I won 400 euros on him as well!

This is interesting. Apparently Molina was racing under appeal after punting Frederic Vervisch out of the second Estoril race, and if the appeal from Pons Racing is turned down he will be disqualified..

http://www.crash.net/motorsport/rena...er_threat.html

It's nice to see both Aleshin and Carlin back up at the sharp end after their recent slump. And another good showing from Giedo van der Garde as well. He hasn't had a podium finish all season, but he is the only driver to have finished all 16 races, and 11 of those in the points. If he doesn't move to GP2 next year, he could well be the favourite for next year's WSR title (assuming he get's a decent seat).

[Martin Haven]

It's been a super year for Parente and Tech 1... they took Parente with a partial budget, to boost their own performance and the combination of Alvaro and the young Tech 1 team has been simply superb... rookies last year, benchmarks this season...

Tech 1 have taken the WSR drivers and teams titles, plus the Megane Trophy titles - 1-2 in the teams standings, 1-2 in the Juniors and 1-2 in the overall (both with Petiz ahead of Enjalbert)... and there is a chance they could make it 1-2-3 in both drivers categories, if Matthieu Lahaye has a good day tomorrow...

They have entered 5 championships and won them all pretty convincingly... last weekend I joked that next year, of course, they'd have to win the FRenault 2.0 Eurocup titles as well... oh yes, Simon and Sarah replied, we want to do that as well...

World domination in carefully-planned steps... F1 in 2012 anyone?

[strider]

Congratulations to Alvaro, I'm very happy for him. This title goes well with the British F3 one from a couple of years ago.

[chunterer]

Indeed, the bloke's a good driver and deserves it.

I sincerely hope he gets a decent GP2 opportunity next season.

[OJB]

I just hope Parente doesn't get ignored like Danielsson for budget reasons - he can be a front runner in GP2 if he gets the chance.

I expect to see van der Garde in GP2 next year - he has Merc backing I think so assume they'll want to move him up. Plus he can't race with Victory next year...

[OJB]

Hanley wins final race fo the year, so gets 2nd in the standings too.

Baguette 2nd for his best result of the season, Nunez 3rd, Pavlovic 4th, Albuquerque 5th, Parente 6th, Duran 7th, Fauzy 8th, Valsecchi 9th and Walker 10th.

[OJB]

Full results:

http://www.crash.net/motorsport/rena...barcelona.html

1. Ben Hanley Prema 41mins 40.176secs
2. Bertrand Baguette KTR +10.295s
3. Alejandro Nunez Comtec +15.214s
4. Milos Pavlovic Draco +16.245s
5. Filipe Albuquerque Epsilon +16.739s
6. Alvaro Parente Tech 1 +17.633s
7. Salvador Duran Interwetten.com +19.593s
8. Fairuz Fauzy Cram +20.812s
9. Davide Valsecchi Epsilon +23.047s
10. James Walker Fortec +23.945s

11. Robert Wickens Carlin +27.003s
12. Frederic Vervisch GD +39.276s
13. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin +45.076s
14. Daniil Move Interwetten.com +55.566s
15. Miguel Molina Pons +56.217
16. Michael Herck Comtec +56.489s
17. Xavier Maasen Prema +1min 35.733s
18. Julian Theobald Eurointernational +1 lap
19. Julien Jousse Tech 1 +1 lap
20. Richard Philippe Fortec 1 lap
21. Carlos Iaconelli Pons +1 lap
22. Clivio Piccione RC +1 lap

Not classified:
23. Alvaro Barba Draco 19 laps completed
24. Giorgio Mondini Eurointernational 14 laps completed
25. Pasquale di Sabatino GD 9 laps completed
26. Guillaume Moreau KTR 6 laps completed
27. Marco Bonanomi RC 5 laps completed
28. Alberto Valerio Victory 4 laps completed
29. Pippa Mann Cram 4 laps completed
30. Giedo van der Garde Victory 0 laps completed

[SALEEN S7R]

Good result for Hanley, nice to have another Brit doing well. Shame about Pippa Mann, after getting a decent qualifying postition she seems to have had 2 bad races.

[strider]

It's good that Ben Hanley and Prema ((one of the nicest teams around) should end the season with a win. They must be among the favourites for next year, I reckon.

I'm a bit bothered about Molina being able to race under appeal. Nothing against the guy, but supposing he had taken out Alvaro and affected the outcome of the Championship?

I think in cases like this the Appeal must be heard before the next round, even if there's only a week between them. You know it makes sense.

[Sev]

Final top ten classification:

1. Alvaro Parente Tech 1 Racing 129
2. Ben Hanley Prema Powerteam 102
3. Milos Pavlovic International Draco Ra... 96
4. Filipe Albuquerque Epsilon Euskadi 81
5. Sebastian Vettel Carlin Motorsport 74
6. Giedo van der Garde Victory Engineering 67
7. Miguel Molina Pons Racing 66
8. Alvaro Barba International Draco Ra... 64
9. Salvador Duran Interwetten.com 64
10. Julien Jousse Tech 1 Racing 62

A few notes/statistics about the finishing table that I found interesting:

- Of the top 5 finishers (possibly more), Vettel was by far the youngest.
- There was a much more even distrobution of points this year than last.
- Parente (+35) and Hanley (+47) and Pavlovic (+55) all made marked improvements on last year, while the other returning full time drivers Aleshin (+3) and Valsecchi (-6) failed to improve and were beaten convincingly by their team-mates.

[strider]

I think there's not much doubt that Vettel would have won the title if he had done the complete season. In fact I tipped him to do so when Carlin signed him nearly a year ago, but privately I always wanted Alvaro to win so I'm very pleased.