After an exhausting weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, the World Series by Renault is taking little time to rest, moving on just a week later from the Ardennes to the Eiffel Mountain region and the Nurburgring.
Heralding rounds ten and eleven of the championship, the German circuit plays host to one of the most crucial meetings of the year as some definition as to who will claim this year’s title becomes clearer with every race.
After his disastrous non-scoring weekend at Misano, Pastor Maldonado put himself right back into contention with two pole positions, one win, one fastest lap and one second place finish, doing enough to vault him back up into the title reckoning.
Indeed, the Venezuelan only narrowly missed out on making it a perfect weekend when a poor start in the second of the two races caused Borja Garcia to move through to win. His first World Series win, it was enough to allow the ever consistent Spaniard to claim the lead of the championship and as the RC Motorsport driver moves onto a circuit he knows from racing in GP2 last year, he is arguably the favourite over his arch-rival to claim the upper hand.
However, Spain has two drivers in the battle for the championship as Andy Soucek continues to maintain his steady progress, his two third places even inheriting him the championship lead briefly. Scoring in seven of nine races, Soucek’s consistent progress has seen him move into a position just four points back in the title reckoning.
However, the top three can all thank Matteo Menghello for getting ahead of erstwhile championship leader Alvaro Parente, the Portuguese driver failing to start the first race when he was hit in the pit lane on the way to the grid by the Italian.
Fighting back to fourth in the second race, Parente is still in touch nine points adrift, but Spa was most certainly a missed opportunity for the Victory Engineering driver.
![Borja Garcia - RC Motorsport [pic credit: Renault Sport media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/236819.jpg)
