out of Baguette

World Series Formula Renault 3.5 - Barcelona – Race 2

Though Bertrand Baguette (KTR) may have been quicker off the grid, nothing or no-one was going to get in the way of Ben Hanley (Prema Powerteam) here on Sunday. The RDD driver took his second win of the season to make sure of the runner-up spot in World Series Formula Renault 3.5. The other driver to make it onto the podium for Sunday's race was Alejandro Nuñez (Red Devil Comtec).

Mikhail Aleshin (clutch problem) and Alvaro Barba (personal decision) started from the pit lane. As the lights went green, Ben Hanley tried to make his way down the inside. Bundled off onto the grass by Nuñez, the Englishman was unable to find a way through. Bertrand Baguette took advantage of the fracas to go round the outside of both of them and turn into the opening bend first!

Baguette, Nuñez and Hanley were followed by Pavlovic, Parente, Albuquerque, Molina, Duran, Fauzy and Valsecchi. Iaconelli came back into the pits at the end of lap one after a collision with Piccione.

Baguette then seized his opportunity to start building up a lead: with three laps gone, the Belgian had already opened up a gap of 1.6 seconds over Nuñez and Hanley. Further back, Pavlovic was leading a group consisting of Parente, Albuquerque and Molina.

On lap five, Marco Bonanomi (RC Motorsport) was forced to retire after his car was hit by Alberto Valerio (Victory Engineering). Pippa Mann (Cram Compétition) also ended her season in the gravel trap.

Hanley finally found a way past Nuñez on lap 6. At this stage, the Englishman was only 1.4 seconds behind Baguette, promising an intriguing end to the race. In one lap, the gap between the two leaders was down to less than a second. At the same time, Pavlovic was closing back up on Nuñez. Hanley started to put Baguette under pressure at the start of lap 10. One lap later, he took the lead with a magnificent move at the end of the main straight.

Miguel Molina, back in seventh position, was handed a drive-through penalty for having performed a dangerous manoeuvre at the start of the race. This allowed James Walker (Fortec Motorsport) back into the points.

By the mid-point in the race, Ben Hanley was already well clear: the RDD driver had a 3.8 second lead over Baguette while Nuñez was clinging onto third place ahead of Pavlovic, Parente and Albuquerque.

On lap 19, Albuquerque took 5th place from Parente. It was the last incident of any note in this last race of the Formula Renault 3.5 season. Once the race was over, Alvaro Parente did however show the crowds just how overjoyed he was by treating them to a whole series ‘doughnuts'!

Ben Hanley: "I got off to a good start, but Alejandro forced me off onto the grass. I didn't want to risk being involved in a collision right from the start and I knew that my car was going to be quick throughout the race. So I decided to bide my time. I'm happy to win the last race of the season and hold onto my 2nd place in the Championship."

Bertrand Baguette: "Alejandro and Ben helped me take the lead from the start! I was very quick over the opening three laps, but then I started to suffer from a lot of oversteer. Ben was very quick and it would have been useless to try and put up any resistance."

Alejandro Nuñez: "I knew that things were going to be difficult from the start as we were having clutch problems. I couldn't stay with the pace set by Ben but I attacked from start to finish without making any errors to secure this podium."

Pos Number Driver  Team  Laps Time GapFirst KPH 

1 18 Ben HANLEY PREMA POWERTEAM 26 41:40.176 - 176.1   2 15 Bertrand BAGUETTE KTR 26 41:50.471 +10.295 175.0   3 6 Alejandro NUÑEZ RED DEVIL TEAM COMTEC 26 41:55.390 +15.214 175.1   4 3 Milos PAVLOVIC INTERNATIONAL DRACO RACING 26 41:56.421 +16.245 174.6   5 21 Filipe ALBUQUERQUE EPSILON EUSKADI 26 41:56.915 +16.739 174.6   6 32 Alvaro PARENTE TECH 1 RACING 26 41:57.809 +17.633 174.8   7 1 Salvador DURAN INTERWETTEN.COM 26 41:59.769 +19.593 174.3   8 19 Fairuz FAUZY CRAM COMPETITION 26 42:00.988 +20.812 174.4   9 22 Davide VALSECCHI EPSILON EUSKADI 26 42:03.223 +23.047 174.3   10 29 James WALKER FORTEC MOTORSPORT 26 42:04.121 +23.945 173.9   11 8 Robert WICKENS CARLIN MOTORSPORT 26 42:07.179 +27.003 174.3   12 27 Frederic VERVISCH GD RACING 26 42:19.452 +39.276 173.5   13 7 Mikhail ALESHIN CARLIN MOTORSPORT 26 42:25.252 +45.076 173.6   14 2 Daniil MOVE INTERWETTEN.COM 26 42:35.742 +55.566 172.6   15 23 Miguel MOLINA PONS RACING 26 42:36.393 +56.217 174.4   16 5 Michael HERCK RED DEVIL TEAM COMTEC 26 42:36.665 +56.489 172.7   17 16 Xavier MAASSEN PREMA POWERTEAM 26 43:15.909 +1:35.733 172.7   18 25 Julian THEOBALD EUROINTERNATIONAL 25 41:46.570 1 Lap 169.9   19 31 Julien JOUSSE TECH 1 RACING 25 41:47.166 1 Lap 175.2   20 30 Richard PHILIPPE FORTEC MOTORSPORT 25 42:07.758 1 Lap 176.8   21 24 Carlos IACONELLI PONS RACING 25 42:14.563 1 Lap 176.0   22 9 Clivio PICCIONE RC MOTORSPORT 25 42:37.830 1 Lap 173.9     4 Alvaro BARBA INTERNATIONAL DRACO RACING 19 33:09.257   178.0     26 Giorgio MONDINI EUROINTERNATIONAL 14 25:28.019   173.1     28 Pasquale DI SABATINO GD RACING 9 38:01.722   176.4     14 Guillaume MOREAU KTR 6 10:10.522   173.5     10 Marco BONANOMI RC MOTORSPORT 5 8:44.204   172.9     12 Alberto VALERIO VICTORY ENGINEERING 4 6:41.978   172.8     20 Pippa MANN CRAM COMPETITION 4 6:44.642   173.5     11 Giedo VAN DER GARDE VICTORY ENGINEERING 0