FR 2.0 – Vandoorne titled despite his retirement

Stoffel Vandoorne wins the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 2012 at the end of a suspenseful final where the outcome of the season rested solely on the performances of his rival Daniil Kvyat. After his podium in Race 1, the Josef Kaufmann Racing resident had a 14-point lead over his Dutch opponent. However, qualifying for the last race of the season called everything into question when the Koiranen Motorsport driver took pole while the Belgian only started from the eighth row. The rain having fallen shortly before the start of the event, Kvyat chose to start on wet tires unlike the majority of the field.

The choice of grooved tires seemed to pay off since the resident of Red Bull Junior Team easily retained the advantage at the start, followed by Jordan King (Manor MP Motorsport) and Andrea Pizzitola (R-Ace GP). Oliver Rowland (Fortec Motorsports), who started alongside the pole sitter, then fell to fourth place while the Championship leader made a sensational start to gain around ten positions and reach sixth position. However, the Belgian retired following contact with Jake Dennis (Fortec Motorsports) and had to watch the race from the pits, praying that his rival would not finish on the podium. His wishes seemed to come true as the marshals imposed a drive-through on the race leader for an early start.

Daniil Kvyat observed his penalty as a safety car entered the track following an accident in the peloton. The Russian emerged from the pits in third position behind Andrea Pizzitola and Ignazio d'Agosto (KTR) at the restart and quickly regained his position, followed by Oliver Rowland. But the Koiranen driver began to lack grip on a track that dried out as the laps went by and fell down the standings to finish in eighth position. The latter therefore misses the title by ten points behind Stoffel Vandoorne. Oliver Rowland won his first victory in the discipline and climbed to fourth place in the Championship behind Norman Nato (RC Formula), 16th in the race. William Vermont (Arta Engineering) and Felipe Fraga (Arta Enginnering) complete the podium ahead of Jake Dennis and Alex Riberas (Josef Kaudmann Racing).

Discover the report of the World Series by Renault final in Barcelona produced by our special correspondent in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.