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Rounds 3 and 4: Motorland Aragon
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The first World Series by Renault meeting of the season takes places at Motorland Aragon in Spain this weekend.
The headlining Formula Renault 3.5 Series began at Monza two weeks ago and three drivers share the points lead after the opening two races in Italy:
1. Carlos Sainz Jnr – 25
= Will Stevens – 25
= Pierre Gasly – 25
4. Sergey Sirotkin – 21
5. Roberto Merhi – 20
6. Marlon Stockinger – 18
= Nikolay Martsenko – 18Also this weekend the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup begins with McLaren Development Driver Nyck de Vries aiming to follow in the footsteps of Stoffel Vandoorne, who won the series two years ago.
All four races will be live on BT Sport this weekend – three on channels and one digitally via the app and website – and I’ll be commentating alongside Ben Evans again. Coverage times as follows:
Saturday
12:00 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup race one live – BT Sport 2
20:15 Formula Renault 3.5 race one live – BT Sport app and websiteSunday
11:30 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup race two live and Formula Renault 3.5 race two live (3.5 race scheduled to start at 1pm) – BT Sport 2
To whet your appetite for the start of the 2.0 season here’s some footage of the opening round of the 2.0 NEC series at Monza two weeks ago:
And in the ALPS races at Imola a week before that Eurocup racer Jack Aitken had this frightening crash in poor visibility:
Looks like it will be a great title battle this year between the top six in FR 3.5, and there is also Sorensen to add to that list (unless he keeps having incidents like the one with Jaafar). If Rossi moves to Haas then that means Stevens only has Frijns to compete with at Caterham (a tough ask in itself.. lets hope Frijns gets a seat and Stevens takes the test driver role, to gain F1 mileage).
Scary incident for Aitken in FR 2.0, even though I knew an incident was coming it still took me by surprise. Already though it looks like a dominant year for de Vries may follow. After another year doing well in FR3.5/GP3 he may soon feel he is ready for F1, like Kvyat or Vandoorne. Looks like we could have 3 McLaren drivers trying to fit into 2 seats, even after Button has retired..
I only watched your second video @keithcollantine because I wanted to see the near-miss with the pitwall, but I felt I had to comment.
That commentator, is absolutely awful. He doesn’t even know who half the drivers are and goes quiet whenever something happens. He also doesn’t appear to know many motor-racing terms, if any at all. Shocking, I could do a better job.
@bradley13, I thought it was quite hilarious: “another guy goes off”, etc. About the crash at Imola: I did not see that one coming. Seriously, crashes like that one make me appreciate a bit more the FIA’s policy to ground the cars in anything more than intermediate conditions.
About De Vries, it’s his third year in the 2.0 categories, so it would certainly be time for him to prove he has what it takes. I think he was third in his first race (or first race weekend), but since then he hasn’t had the success of Kvyat or Vandoorne.
Could it be from the commentator using a second language? Sounds like he is natively Dutch or something to me.
Indeed, he was second between Kvyat and Vandoorne in his first Eurocup weekend. After going through the adjustment to single seaters (or perhaps a growth spurt/adaptation of co-ordination), it looks like he is back to his best, from mid-way through last year. Perhaps the same happened to Sainz Jr in the last year or two, going by his dominant form in the FR 3.5 opener.
De Vries had a strong debut year, but his switch to Koiranen (who gave Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat runner-up spots in a 2011 and 2012, after winning the title with Kevin Korjus in 2010) started badly as the team had several chassis/set up problems with the new 2.0 cars last year. They solved their issues by mid-season, and de Vries was the topscorer in the last six races, catapulting up to fifth.
A surprising name on the times sheet!
#FR20 practice has just finished – and is that @Jamesallenonf1 down in 29th?pic.twitter.com/bXfSneDOQB (Actually an Australian with same name!)
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) April 25, 2014
I’ve updated the original post as all four races are going to be shown live – three of them on BT Sport 2 and the first 3.5 race via the BT Sport app and website.
Looks like Dennis Olsen is really getting up to speed now. Should be interesting to see him take the fight to de Vries.
Hope the Australian James Allen runs well! 20:15 – is FR 3.5 Race 1 under lights? Aragon’s circuit diagram reminds me of Paul Ricard.
Finally caught some BT coverage, after missing all of the last one frustratingly (it’s like being pre-internet, but with apps replacing TV!). Looks tough to commentate on – a learning series, just like for the drivers – at one point early on, there were at least 4 simultaneous battles on screen on the long straight! The amount of cars (and ‘too small for TV’ numbering, again emulating F1) don’t make it easier either. But, I can conclude that Keith sounds a lot like Anthony Davidson (who I also rate as an analyst) :D. Nice shoutout to Andae23’s tweet in the coverage too.
More dominating form from de Vries and Sainz Jr.. they are both looking more ‘F1 level’ by the race! De Vries did well to not overpush early on, or go off in the spitting rain, before then pulling away once more. I saw a bit of the 3.5 race on Eurosport.. didn’t realise I could also see that on BT live but will try and tune in for the highlights later on. I was also impressed with Parry coming back through the FR 2.0 field along with a few others, and the top 4 or 5 looked well clear of the rest.
A lot of people were wondering if Carlos Sainz Jr. could step up to the plate this year. He’s done it, and is crushing the ball out of the field at this rate.
Rowland on pole for the second race as the only driver under the 1m40s, with Sainz (P5) struggling to put a lap together in the second run. I was also happy to see my compatriot Visser (P14) showing improving form after a difficult start to her season.
I was planning to post a printscreen of the live timing, but I see I can only post urls.
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