After and absence of over two years Frédéric Vervisch made his comeback in Formula Renault 3.5 last weekend in the course of the World Series by Renault. Invited by the Italian team GD Racing, the German Formula 3 runner-up took part in the penultimate round of the championship in Estoril.
The 21-year-old Belgian driver made a good impression almost im-mediately. In the first testing session on Thursday he was only a tenth of a second slower than is team mate, who is more experienced. Thereafter, Frédéric was able to keep up a good pace on old tyres. Also on Friday Vervisch was going a lot faster and starched by his competitive runs, he could go into qualifying on Saturday morning. “I aim for the tenth position in my group”, Frédéric revealed before the qualifying started. And he succeeded in his goal. He set the tenth fastest lap time and secured the 20th grid slot. Frédéric gained another place on the grid when one of his rivals saw his fastest lap time cancelled for speeding in the pitlane.
At the start of the first race there was a heavy accident. “I didn’t want to take a risk because I didn’t know where the danger was. So I slowed down and two cars overtook me”, Fred explained. But Frédéric was able to keep up a good pace from the start of the race. “After my pit stop, we had some difficulties to find a good rhythm, but after a while it went pretty well.” Vervisch set the eight fastest lap time in the race and finished 14th after a strong performance. “Our goal was to finish in the top 15 in race 1, and we achieved it.”
Race 2 looked very promising for Frédéric. At the start he won two positions, but because of low pressure in his tyres, he had to let two cars overtake him. After that he was fighting with the Spaniard Molina, the winner of yesterday’s race. Frédéric outbraked Molina, but in a desperate attempt to keep his position, Molina touched Frédérics rear tyre with his front wing. That sent Frédéric into the gravel. “My engine stalled and I was unable to restart it. We again had the prospect of finishing in the top 15, but that possibility was taken from us because of a crude manoeuvre from my opponent”, said Frédéric, who was clearly disappointed by his race’s ending.
“I want to thank everyone at GD Racing for this enjoyable weekend. We were able to fight with the best drivers in the most difficult conditions, thanks to the hard work of all the team. Now we can look forward to the last race of the season next weekend in Barcelona. We want to end the season on a high. Maybe finishing in the points is possible. However that will be a difficult job as all drivers know the circuit very well and we only have one and a half hour available for testing”, Frédéric told.
