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Van Der Garde dominates weekend

MONZA

The first round of the World Series by Renault championship was held in Monza, Italy. It was the first stop on the journey for some lucky driver to get a guaranteed Renault Formula One driver at the end of the season.

The first race was won by former Spyker F1 Test Driver, Giedo Van Der Garde driving for P1. He won from Pasquale Di Sabatino of Comtec after nearly colliding at the first corner of the race he passed him on lap six. Third place was Julien Jousse driving for Tech 1 after winning a race long battle with Pablo Sanchez for Interwetten.

Fifth and sixth went to former GP2 drivers. Fifth was Mikhail Aleshin of Carlin beating Borja Garcia into sixth place for RC. In World Series by Renault points go down to tenth place. The rest of the points went to: James Walker of Fortec in seventh, Guillaume Moreau eighth for KTR, Tech 1 driver Charles Pic ninth and Pippa Mann was tenth for P1. There is also a bonus point for fastest lap, which went to van der Garde.

In the second race Van Der Garde took his second win of the day, this one was not as easier as earlier, this time he was struggling with flat-spotted tyres as Alvaro Barba was closing fast in his Prema car. Third was Pic scoring a podium on his first weekend in the series.

Completing the points down to tenth were: Jousse fourth, Aleshin fifth, Moreau sixth, Walker seventh, Marco Barba eighth for Draco, former A1GP Team Mexico driver Salvador Duran was ninth for Interwetten with Aleix Alcaraz scoring the final point for RC in tenth.

After his double pole, double win and double fastest lap Van Der Garde list leading the championship after a great day to celebrate his twenty-third birthday. He has thirty-two points which is double the sixteen nearest rival Jousse has, third place is currently a three way tie as Alvaro Barba, Pic and Aleshin all have twelve points.

Written: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:07:35