From press release
Canadian Robert Wickens proved he had the pace to challenge for victory this weekend but the Toronto racer was left thwarted by a pair of retirements as Round 3 of the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series visited Italy’s Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
A double ‘DNF’ was scant reward having started Saturday’s race from the front-row and subsequently led the event before his first retirement courtesy of clutch problems. Wickens then dominated qualifying for Sunday’s race, but was stripped of his pole because of a grid penalty applied for an on-track incident in Race 1.
His bad luck then followed him into Race 2, in which he was tagged into a spin by a rival’s car and consigned to his second non-score of the weekend. As a result he loses the lead of the championship, dropping to third after a weekend to forget.
Seventeen-year old Kevin Korjus and Daniel Ricciardo took win in both rounds presented in Monza. Ricciardo was given victory after race winner Jean-Eric Vergne was penalized after the race.
“It’s definitely been a bit of an emotional weekend with big ups and big downs,” said Wickens candidly on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m hoping we’ve now had our ‘bad weekend’ and we can focus on getting the points lead back. It’s a shame actually as we were clearly competitive here, the car was fast but we can’t always get a weekend like the one we had at Spa. We’ll put our heads down, continue to work hard and we’ll be back in Monaco!”
Race 1 classification:
1 - Kevin Korjus - Tech 1 - 28 laps
2 - Jean Eric Vergne - Carlin - 1"611
3 - Daniil Move - P1 - 3"908
4 - Chris Van der Drift - Mofaz - 12"962
5 - Brendon Hartley - Charouz Gravity - 16"178
etc.
Race 2 classification:
1 - Daniel Ricciardo - ISR - 28 laps
2 - Alexander Rossi - Fortec - 2"545
3 - Jean Eric Vergne* - Carlin - 9"492
4 - Cesar Ramos - Fortec - 11"161
5 - Albert Costa - Epic - 11"508
etc.
* post race penalty
Championship:
1.Vergne 90 points ; 2.Rossi 73; 3.Wickens 71; 4.Costa 62; 5.Korjus 50; 6.Van der Drift 39; 7.Ricciardo 36; 8.Move 33, etc.
Canadian Robert Wickens proved he had the pace to challenge for victory this weekend but the Toronto racer was left thwarted by a pair of retirements as Round 3 of the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series visited Italy’s Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
A double ‘DNF’ was scant reward having started Saturday’s race from the front-row and subsequently led the event before his first retirement courtesy of clutch problems. Wickens then dominated qualifying for Sunday’s race, but was stripped of his pole because of a grid penalty applied for an on-track incident in Race 1.
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| Robert Wickens (Photo: Renault Sport) |
His bad luck then followed him into Race 2, in which he was tagged into a spin by a rival’s car and consigned to his second non-score of the weekend. As a result he loses the lead of the championship, dropping to third after a weekend to forget.
Seventeen-year old Kevin Korjus and Daniel Ricciardo took win in both rounds presented in Monza. Ricciardo was given victory after race winner Jean-Eric Vergne was penalized after the race.
“It’s definitely been a bit of an emotional weekend with big ups and big downs,” said Wickens candidly on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m hoping we’ve now had our ‘bad weekend’ and we can focus on getting the points lead back. It’s a shame actually as we were clearly competitive here, the car was fast but we can’t always get a weekend like the one we had at Spa. We’ll put our heads down, continue to work hard and we’ll be back in Monaco!”
Race 1 classification:
1 - Kevin Korjus - Tech 1 - 28 laps
2 - Jean Eric Vergne - Carlin - 1"611
3 - Daniil Move - P1 - 3"908
4 - Chris Van der Drift - Mofaz - 12"962
5 - Brendon Hartley - Charouz Gravity - 16"178
etc.
Race 2 classification:
1 - Daniel Ricciardo - ISR - 28 laps
2 - Alexander Rossi - Fortec - 2"545
3 - Jean Eric Vergne* - Carlin - 9"492
4 - Cesar Ramos - Fortec - 11"161
5 - Albert Costa - Epic - 11"508
etc.
* post race penalty
Championship:
1.Vergne 90 points ; 2.Rossi 73; 3.Wickens 71; 4.Costa 62; 5.Korjus 50; 6.Van der Drift 39; 7.Ricciardo 36; 8.Move 33, etc.