Race 1

Brendon Hartley finished a strong second in Saturday’s 3.5 World Series Renault race at Brno in Czechoslovakia, the New Zealander delighted to be on the podium after taking his fifth ‘top six’ placing from six races.

“It was good to be on the podium again. At Spa it looked like I could have done it until I had to retire and I drove a good race to fourth place at Monaco. I’m happy for both myself and my team,” said Hartley.

“I prefer to win or fight through the field but this was a good result and we can build on it for the Sunday race.”

The Palmerston North 20-year-old qualified third during Saturday morning qualifying and held that spot on the opening lap behind front row starters Filip Salaquarda and Argentinian Estaban Guerrieri.

Czech team ISR dominated the front row in qualifying, but pole-sitter Salaquarda was passed by team-mate Guerrieri into the first corner. Salaquarda’s hopes for a strong result in front of his home crowd ended in the gravel on lap two.

Red Bull Junior driver Hartley took up the challenge and after a tense fight finished just under two seconds adrift of Guerrieri at the flag. At one point the gap came down to 1.5 sec and was never more than 2.5 sec.

Anton Nebylitskiy charged through from tenth on the grid to fourth at the end of the opening lap and Colombian Julian Leal was fourth.

Neither of the championship leaders, Mikhail Aleshin and Daniel Ricciardo, scored points. Fifth place starter Aleshin was forced to pit on the opening lap, and after restarting to record the fastest lap, the Russian came in again to retire.

From a grid slot of 14th after falling foul of a red flag in qualifying, Ricciardo had a difficult race The Australian’s progress up the order ended after reaching the back of a fierce battle between Greg Mansell and Jon Lancaster. Ricciardo finished twelfth.

World Series Renault – Brno Race 1.

Pos Driver Team Time/Gap

1. Esteban Guerrieri ISR 46m47.517s
2. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 + 1.904s
3. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP + 2.994s
4. Julian Leal Draco + 4.415s
5. Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon + 11.035s
6. Sten Pentus Fortec + 12.011s
7. Jan Charouz P1 + 16.740s
8. Nathanael Berthon Draco + 17.818s
9. Stefano Coletti Comtec + 26.716s
10. Jon Lancaster Fortec + 34.222s
11. Greg Mansell Comtec + 35.372s
12. Daniel Ricciardo Tech 1 + 35.647s
13. Nelson Panciatici Junior Lotus + 46.604s
14. Walter Grubmuller P1 + 46.720s
15. Filip Salaquarda ISR + 47.350s
16. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin + 56.270s
17. Sergio Canamasas FHV + 56.656s
18. Albert Costa Epsilon + 1m 33.715s

Retirements:

Federico Leo Pons 19 laps
Victor Garcia KMP 17 laps
Daniel Zampieri Pons 11 laps
Bruno Mendez FHV 8 laps
Mikhail Aleshin Carlin 8 laps
Daniil Move Junior Lotus 0 laps

Race 2

In the Sunday race which included a mandatory pit stop, Hartley started from sixth and made a good start to challenge and eventually take over third position before taking a later than planned stop on lap 12.

After the pit stop he had dropped to sixth, behind his Tech 1 team mate Daniel Ricciardo who had benefited from taking an earlier pit stop.

Esteban Guerrieri completed a double victory at Brno. In a repeat of Saturday’s race, the Argentinean made a better start than pole-sitting team-mate Filip Salaquarda, and from the inside of the front row powered into the lead at the first turn.

Guerrieri appeared comfortable in front until increasing understeer allowed French rookie Nathanael Berthon to reel in the leader. From his second row starting position, Berthon’s strong race pace allowed him to get ahead of Salaquarda during the pitstop sequence.

Berthon applied heavy pressure on Guerrieri for six laps but was not able to stage a serious passing attempt. Berthon elected to drop back on the penultimate lap to finish 1.1s down at the flag.

Having survived an attack from third starter Stefano Coletti into the first corner, which resulted in the Monegasque spinning off on the dusty outside line, Salaquarda held off a tight squabble involving Walter Grubmuller and Daniel Ricciardo for the final place on podium.

Hartley followed his Tech 1 racing team-mate Ricciardo home to complete the top-six. Ricciardo’s result was not enough to demote Mikhail Aleshin as the mid-season points’ leader therefore the Russian claimed the prize demonstration run in Renault’s roadshow Formula 1 car at Magny-Cours on June 19-10.

Sten Pentus appeared to be an innocent party when he was knocked into a spin on the opening lap at Turn 3.

The championship positions are now closer than ever. Mikhail Aleshin has just three points separating him from Daniel Ricciardo, who now finds Esteban Guerrrieri and Brendon Hartley a little too close for comfort.

World Series Renault – Brno Race 2.

Pos Driver Team Time/Gap

1. Esteban Guerrieri ISR 45m59.31s
2. Nathanael Berthon Draco +1.177
3. Filip Salaquarda ISR +5.681
4. Walter Grubmuller P1 +6.489
5. Daniel Ricciardo Tech 1 +7.206
6. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 +12.830
7. Jon Lancaster Fortec +13.881
8. Nelson Panciatici Junior Lotus +29.352
9. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin +29.641
10. Albert Costa Epsilon +30.354
11. Jan Charouz P1 +30.555
12. Stefano Coletti Comtec +30.925
13. Julien Leal Draco +31.539
14. Greg Mansell Comtec +32.293
15. Daniel Zampieri Pons +33.608
16. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin +35.822
17. Sergio Canamasas Interwetten +37.377
18. Federico Leo Pons +37.853
19. Bruno Mendez Interwetten +46.687
20. Victor Garcia KMP +54.733

Not classified

Anton Nebylitskiy KMP 1 lap
Daniil Move Junior Lotus 0 laps
Sten Pentus Fortec 0 laps
Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon 0 laps

Driver Standings
Pos Nat Driver Points
1 RUS Mikhail ALESHIN 52
2 AUS Daniel RICCIARDO 49
3 ARG Esteban GUERRIERI 45
4 NZL Brendon HARTLEY 40
5 EST Sten PENTUS 37
6 MON Stefano COLETTI 28
7 ESP Albert COSTA 27
8 FRA Nathanael BERTHON 26
9 ITA Daniel ZAMPIERI 24
10 GBR Jon LANCASTER 23

7th June, 2010

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: 021 950 250
Email: groupbpj@hotmail.com

TRS Graduate: Brendon Hartley competed in the 2005 and 2006 seasons of TRS winning the first ever TRS race in Timaru.