Daniël De Jong made a highly promising debut in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series at Motorland Aragon in Spain last weekend, 16th/17th April, and the emerging Dutch ace is confident his season will only go from strength to strength. Arriving with a glowing reputation into Formula Renault 3.5 this year, a category regarded as one of the premier feeder championships for Formula One, the 18-year-old delivered two impressively strong race performances for Comtec Racing - markedly improving his pace throughout the event. His best result came in race two where a fantastically well judged drive from 24th on the grid was rewarded with a top 15 finish ahead of a number of much more experienced racers. In the process, Daniël posted a quickest lap time of 1m45.135 seconds - just 0.8 seconds away from the best of all. In the opening 45-minute encounter, Daniël was 19th at the finish with a best lap time within 1.4 seconds of the fastest of the race. All in all a very promising debut in his monstrous 480bhp, 3.5-litre car - a huge step-up from the 2.0-litre Formula Renault he's raced for the last couple of years. "I'm really satisfied with my debut", said the Westmaas driver, "I think we did a really good job, we improved our pace a lot and in the end came away with two strong race finishes. Finishing 15th in race two was a really great start to my season, there are so many quick and experienced drivers in Formula Renault 3.5 so to do so well on my first weekend has given me a lot of confidence." Running with backing from Karpack, Boix and De Jong ECOCUPS, Daniël aspires to steadily increase his pace throughout the 18-race season and be in a position to challenge for the top 10 ahead of a full championship bid in 2012. Formula Renault 3.5 is unquestionably one of the highest profile single-seater championships directly below Formula One and continually develops future Grand Prix Racing talent. Daniël's aim, unsurprisingly, is to use hoped for success in FR 3.5 to make the leap into the world of F1. He added: "Of course, every driver hopes to make it to Formula One in the future and I'm no different - that's my main goal. Being in Formula Renault 3.5 is a fantastic place to be seen so if we can be successful in this championship, it'll be very important for my career." There is now little more than a week to wait until the next round of the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series with races three and four of the season scheduled to take place at Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium, over the weekend 30th April/1st May.