Hungaroring: Bertrand Baguette weekend summary

Another podium for Bertrand Baguette, joint-leader in the championship!

Following his great results at Barcelona and Francorchamps, and a rewarding top 5 in the streets of Monaco, Bertrand Baguette was 2nd in the standings of the World Series by Renault 2009 prior to the race held at the Hungaroring this weekend. An even more interesting placing seeing that the competition's leader after this Magyar race would have the opportunity of getting behind the wheel of a Renault... F1 no less, as part of an exhibition programme during the World Series by Renault in Silverstone, at the beginning of July.

And the least one can say is that the weekend started off on a high for Bertrand, who finished the collective practice sessions on Friday with the absolute best time ... even though some of the drivers were not able to fit their new tyres, as the result of a red flag. "All the same, the lap time was good, and we knew how we needed to sort out the set-up", Baguette explained, rather optimistic for the remainder of the weekend.. "But then we were highly disillusioned following the Superpole, where we weren't at our best. I did manage to save the day registering the 5th best time ... "

On Saturday afternoon, the young Belgian boasting the Draco colours took an excellent start, one of his specialities, getting the better of Brendon Hartley. Up in 3rd place, for the rest of the race he stayed behind his team-mate Marco Barba, without really in a position to attack him. The outcome was that Baguette was back up on the podium once again. "But what is more important is that my nearest rivals in the Championship finished behind me. I couldn't have wished for more, seeing the car was suffering from an amazing amount of understeer ..."

And this Sunday the Belgian wearing the colours of the RACB National Team took off from his 5th spot on the grid. And once more his start was superb, getting the better of Charles Pic and James Walker. "So I was up in 3rd, and as the Safety Car came on to the track Marcos Martinez broke down, which wasn't all bad news. So I slotted up into 2nd place. And after the restart I managed to overtake Miguel Molina, the leader!"

Lap after lap Baguette built up a small lead over the rest of the pack. Victory on the horizon? A second appearance of the Safety Car was to the advantage of all those who had called into the pits earlier. Unfortunately a group which did not include Bertrand... "I was quite clearly the fastest on the track, as proven by my best lap time in the race! And yet I only rejoined the track in 6th place, which I retained until the chequered flag! It's really a great pity, because all the drivers finishing high up in the ranking aren't really the flying arrows! Finishing 6th I obviously scored valuable points, all the more seeing Walker retired. So with my 56 points I'm up top of the leader board....just like Martinez! Unfortunately his various wins at the beginning of the season have made all the difference, and he is the one who will be carrying out the tests with the Renault F1 at Silverstone... "

Notwithstanding all that, when looking at the race for the title, Bertrand has come out of this rather frustrating weekend with a joint-leadership in the championship. So all in all a good omen, even though we have the impression that in Formula Renault 3.5, each race appears to bring about its share of unexpected developments!

-credit: bertrand-baguette.com