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NEWS Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup - 2012

     

03.06.2012 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup - Races 3 + 4  - Spa-Francorchamps

     

Vandoorne two times on the podium at Spa-Francorchamps. Riberas in Top 5, Schothorst without points

     

Free Practice: In the first free practice the track was wet. Under full wet conditions it was Stoffel Vandoorne who was the fastest man on track. Riberas was consistently in Top 5 and Pieter Schothorst in Top 10. Finally the track was drying up. Due to some yellow flag signals the Kaufmann Drivers, after having changed to slick tyres, didn´t really set any countable lap time and finished practice 1 on P 9 - Riberas, P 11 - Vandoorne and P 30 - Schothorst.

In free practice two it was total dry conditions. Pieter Schothorst was able to be on P 13 in the end. Alex Riberas and Stoffel Vandoore were driving really fast. Riberas ended up on P 4, and Vandoorne finally had set the fastest practice time of all drivers - P 1.

Qualifying 1: Due to the high number of 42 cars in Formula Renault Eurocup the Qualifying in Spa was split into two groups. Pieter Schothorst was in Group A. After a less good run Schothorst was only able to qualify on P 14 in his group.

Vandoorne and Riberas were in Group B. Vandoorne and Riberas were fighting for Pole the whole session, finally they finished on P 2 - Vandoorne and P 3 - Riberas in the group. Following Grid Positions for the Race: Vandoorne P 3, Riberas P 5, Schothorst P 28.

Race 1: Vandoorne had a good Start and opening lap and moved up to P 2. Alex Riberas as well had a good opening lap and stayed on P 5. Pieter Schothorst moved up the order a bit as well. After a Safety-Car period Schothorst was able to move upto P 17 untill he was touched by another driver and spun off. He finished on P 28. Alex Riberas drove a clean and fast race beeing able to follow the front runners. He finally finished P 5. Stoffel Vandoorne was fighting for the lead the whole race. Even though beeing faster and trying several overtaking moves he wasn´t able to take over the lead. He finally finished on P 2 and took another podium this year.

Qualifying 2: Vandoorne and Riberas had been on track in Group B first. After they left the pits on slicks, it started heavily to rain. After a fast pit stop with tyre change, both Kaufmann Drivers were on a free lap, when a red flag was shown. After the red flag the session was only 6 minutes and no driver had set any timed lap at all at that moment. It were only two flying laps left after session re-start. Riberas, eventhough he was very fast, failed to find a total free lap and qualifyied only on a very disappointing P 12. Vandoorne first had set the fastest lap, but in the final seconds he was dropped to P 2.

Schothorst qualified himself on P 14 in his group again. For the race starting positions were Vandoorne P 4, Riberas P 24 and Schothorst P 27.

Race 2: Sunday´s race was started under heavy rain. Directly during the first race lap it was a red flag due to a big crash after Eau Rouge. Schothorst had already moved up to P 18 and Riberas to P 21. Vandoorne had a super start and was on P 2. After a long break the race was re-started behind the Safety-Car. Still the race again was only 6 laps untill it was finally red flagged again. Due to a crash of Alex Riberas, who crashed into the wall before Bus Stopp Chicane, the race wasn´t restarted anymore. Riberas was still classfied on P 19. Schothorst, after a 25 sec penalty finished on P 29. Vandoorne lost one position at the restart, but then drove a clean and consitent race on finished P 3 and took the second Podium Finish for the successful weekend in Spa-Francorchamp.

     
     
Pictures from Spa-Francorchamps