Spa, Belgium – August 18, 2007. After starting
from a superb pole position, Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy followed
up his front-row start with a fantastic second place finish
at the Spa-Francorchamps round of World Series by Renault
3.5. Fairuz led away at the green light and avoided the
mayhem that ensued behind him, as Miguel Molina launched
over the back of Alvaro Barba at the first corner, La Source.
Fairuz built up a commanding lead in his Cram Competition
machine before he was overtaken by Tech 1 driver Alvaro
Parente, under braking for the Bus Stop chicane, at the
end of the sixth lap.
“I made a really clean start and built up a five
second gap after just three laps,” said Fairuz. “But
I couldn’t hold Parente back because he started with
a new set of tyres and was much faster in the slow speed
corners and had superior traction. I had to give away the
lead into the Bus Stop chicane but decided to try and pass
him back in the pitstops.” Fairuz made his mandatory
pit stop for fresh rubber on lap seven and resumed in seventh
position, but as the other cars pitted, he found himself
in third place, running behind Parente and Clivio Piccione.
He spent the majority of the race, just a couple of seconds
behind the Monegasque and four seconds behind the race
leader.
On the final lap – as at the Hungaroring – the
24-year-old came under increasing pressure for the final
podium slot from Britain’s Ben Hanley who closed
the gap down on the Malaysian. On the final tour Hanley
closed on the Kemmel straight, but Fairuz fended off the
Brit as the pair entered Les Combes.
Then approaching the final corner second-placed Piccione
suddenly slowed with engine problems and Fairuz couldn’t
believe his luck as he inherited second place just before
the chequered flag. He was delighted with his result at
the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
“It was a really tough race, but I’m quite
happy to get another podium finish as it’s important
to be consistent, but it’ll be lovely to finish first,” said
Fairuz.
In Race 2 later today, Fairuz start from ninth position,
with the reverse grid rule. Unfortunately for him, he did
not finish the race when he crashed on the Lap 3 while
overtaking James Walker from Fortec Motorsport. He was
at the 10th position at that time.
After Spa-Francorchamps’ round, Fairuz climb to
9th position from 15th position in overall championship
with 31 points. Alvaro Parente now is a new leader for
championship with 77 points.
Next round of World Series by Renault will be held in
Donington Park, England, on 8th and 9th September.
Race one result – Spa
1 Alvaro Parente (POR), Tech 1, 20 laps
2 Fairuz Fauzy (MAL), Cram, +4.242s
3 Ben Hanley (GBR), Prema, +4.580s
4 Salvador Duran (MEX), Interwetten +12.147s
5 Betrand Baguette (FRA), KTR, +26.981s
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