Brendon Hartley was on the podium for the second time in a fortnight after finishing a strong second to his team mate in the World Series Renault race at the Nurburgring in Germany overnight.

Following his Euro F3 victory at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, the Red Bull driver returned to the 3.5-litre Renault series this weekend to take pole position and fastest lap for the feature race.

After 25 laps Hartley was just 0.6sec behind Frenchman Charles Pic.

“It was another good result because I was the first rookie driver and it was a 1-2 finish for the Tech 1 team.”

“Having started from pole, I would have preferred a win, but I’m happy with the result anyway. I tried putting Charles under pressure before the mandatory pit-stop, and in the rest of the race too; but he just drove a great race.”

“Charles got a better start off the line and I was on the outside and slightly comprised going into the first corner. I did the sensible thing and let my team mate have the corner.”

The Tech 1 drivers had agreed a strategy that whichever driver was leading would have the advantage of taking a later compulsory pitstop. Hartley was therefore brought in from his pursuit of Pic on lap eight, while Pic was given another two laps before changing his front tyres.

A yellow flag incident during this time denied Hartley the chance to close the gap while leading and Pic returned to the track with Hartley’s Red Bull car still in his mirrors.

Pic then held a narrow lead to the formation finish to take out his second win of the season.

In the ‘reverse top eight’ grid Saturday race at the Nurburgring Hartley started eighth but was tagged from behind going into the first corner. He recovered to finish in 13th place.

From seventh on the grid in Sunday’s race, Bertrand Baguette survived a poor start in which he dropped two positions, to clinch the Formula Renault 3.5 series title by virtue of a solid fifth place finish.

Comtec’s Jon Lancaster had appeared set for a safe third place following a determined start. The British driver had been the biggest threat to the Tech 1 pair over the early laps, but lost ground, if not track position, by opting to delay his pitstop until lap 12.

Already smarting over the race director’s decision to award him a 10s penalty in Saturday’s race, Lancaster was saddled with more misery when his car ground to a halt at Turn 5 on lap 18.

Instead, it was Fairuz Fauzy who picked up third place and his second podium of the weekend. James Walker put the disappointment of retiring with overheating in race one behind him to take fourth place, within a second of the Mofaz Fortec car at the chequered flag.

Walker’s points move the Jersey racer ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in the drivers’ standings. The Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver benefited from the late race retirement of Carlin team-mate Oliver Turvey to take sixth.

Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Charles Pic Tech 1 45m59.547s
2. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 + 0.695s
3. Fairuz Fauzy Fortec + 13.947s
4. James Walker P1 + 14.830s
5. Bertrand Baguette Draco + 22.491s
6. Jaime Alguersuari Carlin + 26.508s
7. Marco Barba Draco + 36.660s
8. John Martin Comtec + 42.947s
9. Daniil Move P1 + 43.299s
10. Chris van der Drift Epsilon Euskadi + 45.810s
11. Anton Nebylitskiy SG + 48.475s
12. Sten Pentus Fortec + 48.635s
13. Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon Euskadi + 49.558s
14. Julian Leal Prema + 53.261s
15. Mihai Marinescu Interwetten + 54.534s
16. Salvador Duran Interwetten + 58.141s
17. Federico Leo Pons + 1m15.567s

Retirements:

Jon Lancaster Comtec 18 laps
Oliver Turvey Carlin 16 laps
Pasquale di Sabatino RC 16 laps
Marcos Martinez Pons 15 laps
Filip Salaquarda Prema 9 laps
Guillaume Moreau SG 6 laps

21st September, 2009.

Issued by Murray Taylor on behalf of Red Bull New Zealand.

Telephone: 09 445 0209
Mobile: 027 294 7930
Email: murray.taylor@xtra.co.nz

Peter ‘PJ’ Johnston -Manager of Brendon Hartley
Mobile: + 64 21 950 250
Email: groupbpj@hotmail.com

Website: www.brendonhartley.co.nz