Barcelona 2006 - Victory for Parente.

Sunday, 29th October 2006

Although he failed to show the scintillating pace that has made him such a dominant force in the second half of the season, fifth place in Barcelona for Alx Danielsson was all he needed to confirm himself as the surprise winner of the World Series by Renault - at least for the moment.

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It was a disappointing first lap all-round for Kerr's KTR team, with pole sitting Sean McIntosh letting the big occasion get to him by bogging down, allowing Maldonado to storm past from third, while Parente also found a way through.

Soucek's hopes of Danielsson retiring were almost realised too, the Swede getting rather tangled up in trying to pass McIntosh, but instead allowing the fast starting Adrian Zaugg through into fourth behind the Canadian. Danielsson ended the first lap fifth.

Save for a rather racy Christian Montanari planting a move on Garcia for sixth place on the second lap, the race settled into a rather static order over the first few laps, with Maldonado pulling out a gap of over a second on Parente, who in turn was edging away from McIntosh.

Knowing Soucek was out, Danielsson elected for the least eventful route to the title, pitting at the earliest opportunity at the end of lap four, only to see Zaugg ahead had the same idea. Nonetheless, the Comtec Racing crew got the better of their Carlin rivals to get Danielsson back out in front of the South African. Milos Pavlovic and Franck Perera would also adopt the early pit stop strategy in the following laps.

Maldonado waited until lap ten to make his stop, emerging from the pit lane over five seconds up on Danielsson, who was having to stare at the back of the considerably slower GD Racing entry of Carlos Iaconelli.

Parente, who had got the gap down to his rival to just under a second, duly reacted to Maldonado pitting by entering his box the very next lap and after a superb turnaround by the Victory Engineering squad, Parente re-entered the fray ahead of a gutted Maldonado.

With Parente and Maldonado running in an effective first and second, albeit behind those yet to pit, McIntosh assumed the lead until lap 13 when he pitted, handing the advantage to Montanari, the fastest driver on the track at that moment, until the San Marino driver pitted on lap 14.