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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With the pit stops over and ten laps to run, Parente was now in charge, a second up on Maldonado, while McIntosh had held onto third from Montanari, the Prema Powerteam driver having jumped ahead of Danielsson, who was now running a lonely fifth when Zaugg was forced to retire from sixth with a mechanical problem.

With the top five all spreading out somewhat, attention turned to the battle in the lower regions of the top ten, with Franck Perera in sixth, leading Garcia, Ben Hanley, Steven Kane and Milos Pavlovic.

It was all change on lap 23 though when Garcia made a mistake and slipped to ninth, while Pavlovic cruised into the pit lane to retire, ending what has been a torrid weekend for the Serbian.

There were no such issues for Parente though, the Portuguese driver adding to his third place in the first race to cement fifth in the standings, while Maldonado now has to sit tight and see whether the appeal for his disqualification comes his way when it is resolved in the courtrooms over the coming weeks. McIntosh was third, albeit ruing his 'worst start of the season', with Montanari in fourth place.

It was fifth place Danielsson owning the biggest smile though, the Swede thrilled to be taking the title in his first full season in the series, while also allowing Norfolk-based Comtec Racing to celebrate the title in their first year of competing in the series.

"The opening bends were tricky. I knew that it was essential for me to score s ome points so I didn't take any risks. Our pit stop wa s good, as I moved up a place. Then, I just tried to a void making any mistakes. I didn't know the outcome of the championship until I crossed the line!"

Despite Soucek's problems, sixth place Perera did enough to confirm Interwetten.com as the team champions, with seventh and eighth falling to Brit duo Hanley and Kane. Garcia was a frustrated ninth having gone into the final round as the big favourite to succeed on home ground.