American driver Alexander Rossi brought home 15 valuable championship points with his 3rd place finish from the opening race of World Series by Renault at Silverstone circuit, UK today.

In the glorious morning sunshine Rossi was straight on the pace and set a time that shot him to P2 on to the time sheets immediately as qualifying commenced. In an intensely close fought battle for pole position with Robert Wickens, Rossi’s No: 7 Fortec Motorsports car was handling well, but even faultless laps set by Alexander could not help him to improve on his time of 1:45.410. He ended qualifying in P2 to start the afternoon’s race alongside the Carlin driver on the front row of the grid.For race one the wind brought dark clouds and spots of rain over the old airfield track. Rossi made a good start and held his P2 position, worrying  Wickens for most of the 26 laps race. The pair were in a class of their own and for most of the 26 laps race, were streaks ahead of the rest of the field. However, in the closing stages and with only a few laps to go, Rossi’s tyres went off allowing third placed Ricciardo through to take position. Erring on the side of caution, Rossi brought his car home as leading series Rookie and took the chequered flag in a well deserved third place. The result has elevated him to P3 in the Drivers’ Championship with 116 points – only 36 points behind Vergne.Alexander Rossi “It was a good result for the team today. I am disappointed not to have gone from P2 to P1, but on the positive side we showed that we are in the top three in terms of pace. As the rear tyres went away towards the end of race, it took me a good two laps to adapt to it. Ricciardo got real quick at that point so he was able to capitalise on that and I knew I was defending, but I did not want to miss out on the podium finish, so I took the conservative route. I’m now P3 in the Championship and looking to closing the gap even further to Vergne tomorrow.”Jamie Dye, Team Manager, Fortec Motorsports “This is a great result for the team. Alexander’s podium finish and 15 points haul means that he has jumped Korjus in the Drivers’ Championship to take 3rd position and added valuable points to the team tally too to keep us in second place in the Constructors’ Championship. With the car running well and the race pace consistent, we have it all to play for tomorrow.”