Race Report

FORMULA RENAULT 2.0
2013 ALPS CHAMPIONSHIP, Rounds 1/2

Circuit: Vallelunga (I), Length 4.085 km, 06^th/07^th April 2013
www.vallelunga.it

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2013:
Kevin Joerg (CH), Denis Korneev (RUS), Max Schaumburg-Lippe (D) and Andrew Tang (SIN)

The first race event of the new season

The first of seven race events for the Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS championship took place at Vallelunga near Rome and featured a full field of 36 drivers.
The races are part of the well known Peroni Race Program and can be followed via live stream on the official website www.renaultsportitalia.it/pg/streaming.html

Qualifying

Saturday, 06/04/13, 10.15 – 11.20, Weather: Sunny, 12°C

According to the rules there is one qualifying session of 30 minutes, with the participants split into two groups, running in consecutive sessions. The best lap time per driver makes up the grid for race one, and the second fastest lap time for each driver determines the grid for race two.
Free practice on Friday was run in cool, rainy conidtions. By Saturday morning it was nice and already agreeably warm. However Denis was not at all well, and had been sick in the night. Normally we would have expeceted him to achieve a better position, although under the circumstances 10^th in his group was not bad. Andrew was ready for his first European qualifying session, and he did a good job, improving right until the last lap. He was rewarded with the very good 8^th place in his group.

Running on his first set of tyres Kevin was up to 3^rd place in the standings by the mid-point of the session, but didn’t have such a good run on his second set and ended up 11^th in his group. Max started off well but made a mistake towards the end and spun off, and although he was able to complete the lap, he was not able to improve after that. However, he had claimed a decent 9^th in his group.

Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS Championship

Race One (25 minutes + 1 lap)

Saturday, 06/04/13, 17.00, Weather: Sunny, 15°C

Overnight Denis’s condition worsened, and he was diagnosed with a serious infection, and was running a fever, so he had to spend the day back at the hotel. So it was Kevin, Andrew and Max who upheld our colours at the season‘s start. All three made a good start and quickly made up some places. Andrew was 12^th, Max 14^th and Kevin 15^th. Max tried another overtaking maneuvre, but it went wrong, he lost a lot of momentun and he fell back to 20^th. Andrew held his place, drove well and didn’t make any mistakes, while Kevin overtook de Nardo and then showed up just behind Andrew. Andrew didn’t make it easy for him though, and the pair of them were fighting for position for quite some time, before Kevin finally managed to get past Andrew three laps from the end. That meant his first resut of the new season was 11^th from 36 runners, and Andrew crossed the finishing line just behind Kevin to claim 12^th in his first car race in Europe. Max drove with great enthusiasm and clawed his way back to 15^th, but then, shortly before the end of the race, he spun in the same place as in qualifying, and despite being able to continue dropped back to 20^th. However, we were happy that all our drivers finished the first race of the season with no damage and had finished just outside the top ten.

Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS Championship

Race Two (25 minutes + 1 lap)

Sunday, 07/04/13, 14.30, Weather: Sunny, 15°C

Today the sun shone again, and it wasn‘t the only thing to get a bit heated; there were several incidents at the start.

Denis got off to a good start and managed to make up some places, but then he ran wide in one of the corners; Max tried to pass him on the inside, but Denis closed the gap and there wasn‘t enough room for both of them. Max‘s car went up over Denis‘ car and rolled, while Denis spun and came to a standstill in an dangerous position and was promptly hit by another car. Fortunately only the cars were damaged and not the drivers, but the Safety Car had to be scrambled to lead the survivors back to the pitlane. At the restart Kevin made a good getaway and was soon 13^th, while Andrew was 16^th. Kevin had a very good race and managed to move up the order, claiming the team’s first championship point with 10^th place. Meanwhile Andrew got pushed onto the grass and fell back to 22^nd as a result, before starting a recovery drive that saw him make up positions lap after lap, finally finishing 15^th.

The next race weekend of the ALPS championship will be in one month‘s time, starting on 10^th May in Imola.

Championship Standings

Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS Championship after 2 out of 14 races:

1^st Antonio Fuoco (I), 43 points; 2^nd Luca Ghiotto (I), 28 points; 3^rd Pierre Gasly (F), 27 points; 4^th Guilherme Silva (BRA), 23 points; 5^th Bruno Bonifacio (BRA), 23 points; 6^th Dario Capitanio (I), 10 points; 14^th Kevin Jörg (CH), 1 point

2013 CALENDAR

Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS Championship

For more information:

• www.renaultsportitalia.it
• www.italiaracing.net