Just months after admitting he may have to spend the year sat on the sidelines due to financial woes, Alvaro Parente can now call himself the third World Series by Renault Champion after wrapping up the title in the last round of the season.
An immense achievement for the former British Formula 3 Champion, Parente looked as though he would be without a drive in any series just before the start of the season before securing an eleventh hour deal to run with Tech 1 Racing.
A burgeoning team themselves, Tech 1 Racing were embarking on only their second World Series by Renault season and with Parente having barely tested for them as the season got underway, it did not look like a championship winning combination.
Nonetheless, unlike the first season of World Series in which Parente struggled with consistency on the way to fifth in the standings, the Portuguese driver has been a persistent front runner, scoring a total of five podiums so far this year and failing to score on just three occasions.
It all culminated in Parente cementing the title in the first race of the weekend at Barcelona to join
Robert Kubica and Alx Danielsson on the winner's list, much to his delight.
"We knew that we would be competitive here once again and we proved just that by qualifying on the front row. After making my stop I found myself in a bit of traffic which prevented me from being able to fight it out for the win.”
![Alvaro Parente - Tech 1 Racing [pic credit: Renault Sport Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/393426.jpg)
