Having swept all before him in the opening double-header at Monza, P1 Motorsport's Giedo van der Garde has marked himself out as the man to beat as the World Series by Renault gets straight on with round two, at Spa-Francorchamps, this weekend.
With pole position and two victories, the Dutchman takes a maximum haul of 31 points to Belgium and, while he may be confident of doing the same again a little closer to home, there are 25 drivers who won't be out to make it easy for him. van der Garde, who celebrated his 23rd birthday in Italy, has a warning of his own, however.
"My performance over the weekend at Monza means I can feel more relaxed," he explained, "I secured my first pole position and followed up with my first two wins, so it's good to have that under my belt. I enjoy the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, so I'll be hoping to keep my momentum."
Leading the likely resistance to van der Garde's onslaught will be Draco's Bertrand Baguette, who races on home soil this time out and will be looking to justify his backing from the Royal Automobile Club de Belgique.
"I was up with the pace, and my car was performing well, but we simply did not have any success," he said of the opening round, "We suffered a technical problem when I was out in the lead in race one and then there was that misunderstanding with Fabio Carbone in race two, leading to a DNF in both races. For me, the answer to that is quite simple: I have to win at Spa."
Another driver who looks certain to be in the hunt for victory is Julien Jousse, who currently lies second in the championship with reigning title holder Tech 1 Racing. Along with rookie team-mate Charles Pic, Jousse has kept Simon Abadie's team in touch with P1 in the teams' standings and is looking to build on his own podium performance in order to close the gap on van der Garde.
