A first for Daniel Ricciardo

Whether in Formula Renault 2.0 or in the Clio Cup the majority of European Championships are now over. From Finland to Italy here are the results of the Renault Sport Championships.

Daniel Ricciardo had a very busy end to the year with 8 races in 3 weekends, and the Australian emerged champion of the very first Formula Renault 2.0 West European Cup. The SG Formula driver won the title in the last round on the Barcelona circuit from Spaniard Roberto Mehri.

At the other end of Europe Valterri Bottas won the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC a few weeks before finishing first in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. The Finn came first from Antonio Felix da Costa and Tobias Hegewald. In Italy, Norwegian Pal Varhaug (photo) emerged victorious in the title chase in spite of an end-of-season charge by Italian Michele Faccin. Briton Adam Christodoulou and Swiss Christophe Zanella also won their respective championships. Only in Asia is the title still to be awarded between Geoffrey Kwang and Jim Ka To. Ricciardo, Mehri, da Costa, Hegewald, Varhaug, Christodolou, Zanella, Kwong, Costa, Vautier and Krohn have been asked to test the Formula Renault 3.5 on 5th November on the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit.

In the Clio Cup Maxime Martin had a great finish to the season pipping Nicolas Milan for the French Cup. The Belgian also filled the runner-up spot in the European Mégane Trophy. François Verbist won the title in Belgium while in the Netherlands Pim van Riel beat Paul Vahstal. Simone di Luca won the category in Italy in his first full season. Daniel Hadorn dominated the Swiss championship. Ben Winrow led from the first meeting on the Brands Hatch circuit and went on to win the UK Clio Cup. In Spain, Antonio de la Reina won the Clio Cup before the last 2 rounds on the Jerez circuit.

The end of the season was also marked by the first run of the new Mégane Trophy. It was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show and is a radical departure from the 2008 car as its lines follow those of the new Mégane Coupe. The Renault Technocentre designers used CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) technology to come up with the car’s fluid lines. These have resulted in improved aerodynamic performances: + 20% in downforce and – 15% in drag. Putting these 2 data together has led to an improvement in the car’s streamlining of almost 40%. The 3.5-litre V6 24-valve engine’s power output has been increased to 360 bhp with revisions every 5500 kilometres.

Look out for this car next season in the World Series by Renault meetings!

FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 WEC

1. Daniel Ricciardo (SG Formula) 192 pts2. Roberto Merhi (Epsilon Euskadi) 184 pts3. Andrea Caldarelli (SG Formula) 129 pts4. Jean-Eric Vergne (SG Formula) 95 pts5. Albert Costa (Epsilon Euskadi) 85 pts

 FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 NEC

1. Valterri Bottas (Motopark Academy) 365 pts2. Antònio Felix da Costa (Motopark) 279 pts3. Tobias Hegewald (Motopark) 260 pts4. Stef Dusseldorp (Van Amersfoort) 224 pts5. Johan Jokinen (Motopark Academy) 224 ptsFORMULA RENAULT 2.0 ITALIA

1. Pal Varhaug (Jenzer Motorsport) 330 pts2. Michele Faccin (Jenzer Motorsport) 271 pts3. Niki Sebastiani (IT Loox) 270 pts4. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (BVM Minardi) 250 pts5. Sergio Campana (Co2 Motorsport) 238 pts

FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 UK

1. Adam Christodoulou (CR Scuderia) 472 pts2. Alexander Sims (Manor Motorsport) 449 pts3. Adriano Buzaid (Fortec Motorsport) 418 pts4. Dean Stoneman (Alpine Motorsport) 377 pts5. Riki Christodoulou (Fortec) 374 pts

 FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 BARC

1. Ollie Hancock (Apotex Scorpio) 130 pts2. Johannes Seidlitz (Mark Burdett) 101 pts3. Isa Yousif (Alpine Motorsport) 92 pts4. Menasheh Idafar (Hillspeed) 77 pts5. Ahmad Al Harthy (Hillspeed) 68 pts

FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 SUISSE

1. Christopher Zanella 249 pts2. Simon Trummer 244 pts3. Yair Godinez 193 pts4. Genis Olive Juve 179 pts4. Nico Müller 174 pts

 FORMULA RENAULT 2.0 ASIAAprès Zuhai (5 octobre)

1. Geoffrey Kwong 252 pts2. Jim Ka To 248 pts3. Cao Hong Wei 218 pts4. Luis Jorge Sa Silva 145 pts5. Ryan Haryanto 139 pts

 CLIO CUP ESPAÑAAprès Catalunya (19 octobre)

1. Antonio de la Reina 361 pts2. Miguel Gallego 240 pts3. Gonzalo Martìn de Andres 201 pts4. Jordi Palomeras 199 pts5. Daniel Mesalles 190 ptsCLIO CUP BELGIQUE

1. François Verbist 138 pts2. "Mich" 123 pts3. Stian Paulsen 93 pts4. Guillaume Dumarey 78 pts5. JJ Magalhaes 75 pts

 CLIO CUP FRANCE

1. Maxime Martin 117 pts2. Nicolas Milan 117 pts3. Marc Guillot 109 pts4. Aurélien Comte 95 pts5. Laurent Fradetal 91 ptsCLIO CUP ITALIA

1. Simone di Luca 150 pts2. Giancarlo Lenzotti 126 pts3. Nicola Rinaldi 126 pts4. Nicola Baldan 122 pts5. Ronnie Marchetti 112 pts

 CLIO CUP NETHERLANDS

1. Pim van Riet 195 pts2. Paul Vahstal 192 pts3. Sandra van der Sloot 179 pts4. Addi van de Ven 143 pts5. Robert van den Berg 135 ptsCLIO CUP SUISSE

1. Daniel Hadorn 219 pts2. Lukas Ryf 148 pts3. Andreas Stucki 112 pts4. Reto Wüst 105 pts5. René Leutenegger 102 pts

 CLIO CUP UK

1. Ben Winrow 496 pts2. Paul Rivett 437 pts3. Phil Glew 345 pts4. Carl Bradley 278 pts5. Niki Lanik 262 pts