Renault WS » vd Garde bounces back at Le Mans.

Sunday, 7th September 2008

Giedo van der Garde put aside his disappointment at not starting the first World Series by Renault race of the weekend to strengthen his grip on the title in race two at Le Mans.

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Sadly for the man still combining WSbR and F3, it wasn't enough, and van der Garde once again found himself in first place, albeit with the two Ultimate Signature men - Carbone ahead of Guerrieri, right on his tail.

Behind them, fourth-placed Aleshin was running by himself, ahead of a hard-fought battle for fifth spot involving Molina, Pic, Salvador Duran and Marco Barba. Despite some frenetic tussling, however, the four involved remained in the same order until the end of the race.

There was a similar situation at the front, with no change in the order as the finish approached. Able to resist the challenge from behind, van der Garde duly completed his fifth win of the season to move one step closer to a title he has looked favourite to take since dominating the opening coupe of rounds. Despite not being quite as successful since, the Dutchman now leads Carbone by 53 points, and needs just nine more to take over from Alvaro Parente as champion.

"What happened to me yesterday was really frustrating but, today, everything worked perfectly," van der Garde admitted, "My only problem was controlling the car after the pit-stop. We had changed the front tyres and I was getting a lot of oversteer, but then everything was fine. It was a hard battle with the two Ultimate Signature drivers, but I can't wait for Estoril. My aim is to win the title there."

Carbone and Guerrieri duly completed the podium, coming home some eight seconds clear of a lonely Aleshin, but, despite harrying his team-mate, the Argentine admitted that he was not prepared to do anything stupid.

"First, my first pole position, now my first podium finish!" he enthused, "The start was important but, from then on, I kept a steady pace, and made up ground on Fabio and Giedo at the end. But I couldn't take any unnecessary risks.....

A double podium underlined Ultimate Signature's claim to be the team of the season, having only made the jump to the World Series at the end of 2007. With both Carbone and Guerrieri on form, a teams' title in its rookie season, a la Tech 1, may not be out of the question.