From Formula 1 to first place

Last racing weekend the Formula Renault 3.5 World Series celebrated a new winner on a new circuit with Jaime Alguersuari in the Portuguese town of Portimao.

One week after his Formula 1 debut, Jaime Alguersuari took a seat in the cockpit of a Formula Renault 3.5 World Series car. The huge career move hoisted Jaime to a new level in this racing series as well. The 19-year-old was victorious in a Formula Renault 3.5 race for the first time ever. The location for the brand new circuit was Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, first completed in the fall of 2008 in Portimao. Starting from pole position, Alguersuari was the last into the first bend and didn’t relinquish his lead – despite a safety-car phase – until the last lap; a few bends before the finish line, Jaime was overtaken by the Frenchman Charles Pic. But the Spaniard countered the Frenchman successfully, and went on to celebrate his first victory in the Formula Renault 3.5 World Series. ‘Up to the safety car phase everything was running perfectly – but then Pic gave me some trouble. And then, when he suddenly got ahead of me, I had no choice but to fight back. It was a great feeling. In the last few weeks, everything has been working amazingly well,’ Jaime Alguersuari said after the race.

Podium for Mäki

The Formula 3 Euro Series took place as part of the accompanying program of the DTM in Oschersleben. Coming in third behind Stefano Coletti, Mika Mäki celebrated his first Formula 3 podium. The Finn was actually waved across in second place, but due to a time penalty during a yellow flag phase, which affected almost the whole field, first place was awarded to Christian Vietoris.