The final race of the World Series by Renault season brought yet another podium for Gravity-Charouz Racing. After third places in Monaco and France, Hartley added another bronze in Spain.
The New Zealander crashed heavily during Saturday’s qualifying and the car sustained big damage requiring changes to both chassis and engine. The mechanics managed to finish everything in time for second qualifying where Hartley set the 13th fastest time with the newly-assembled car.
The start of Sunday’s race was full of drama with a lot of clashes and collisions. The Kiwi improved to 8th immediately and then made the most of his good strategy of a late pit stop. The stop itself was also perfect, the second fastest of all, and the black-and-gold car No 28 jumped to third position which Hartley managed to keep after fending off close rivals.
Brendon Hartley said: “Taking a podium was a great way to reward the team for the hard work over recent races. We had some problems in qualifying but the team did a great job to completely rebuild the car overnight. I did a good job in the race and they carried out a good pit stop and strategy. Big thanks to everyone at Gravity-Charouz Racing.“
Jan Charouz, running in the second car of the Czech-Luxembourg team, set only the 24th best time in the first qualifying session. The Czech driver made a great start, gained 13 places and set the third fastest lap of the race. He finished 8th and earned valuable points.
However, Sunday told a completely different story. Many cars crashed at the first few corners of the Catalunya circuit and the black-and-gold car No 27 of the Gravity-Charouz Racing was one of them. “I did not have a bad start and the first corner was okay. I definitely moved closer to the front. However, someone closed the door on me at the second corner and damaged my car too much to continue. The whole season did not fulfil our vision which is not good,” said Jan Charouz.
Jan Charouz did demo runs behind the wheel of an F1 Lotus Renault GP car on both Saturday and Sunday. Those promotion runs are regular part of the spectators’ show during World Series by Renault racing weekends.
Like Jan Charouz on Saturday, Brendon Hartley set the third fastest lap of the race on Sunday. Thanks to 16 points from Spain, Gravity-Charouz Racing moved up to 6th place in the teams’ classification, level with the British P1 motorsport team.
“As a new team we could not avoid some problems at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, we later had some trouble with our cooperation with DAMS. We therefore decided to split with the French team before round 7 and our team Charouz Racing System took full responsibility for preparation of the cars. Once again we started from scratch. However, both in France and here in Spain we saw that it was the right step. Brendon’s third place in today’s race is a clear proof of that. We ended up joint sixth with proven team P1 Motorsport. So for me it is a good job,” said Antonín Charouz, manager of Gravity-Charouz Racing.
For current photos in high-resolution please visit the media web site of BPA sport marketing agency – media.bpa.cz
Results Qualifying 1 find HERE
Results Race 1 find HERE
Results Qualifying 2 find HERE
Results Race 2 find HERE
USEFUL LINKS:
| Official websites of Jan Charouz | www.jan-charouz.cz |
| Official websites of Brendon Hartley | www.brendonhartley.co.nz |
| Official websites of CHRS | racing.charouz.cz |
| Official websites of Gravity Sport Management | www.gravity-sport-management.com |
| Official websites of WSbR | www.worldseriesbyrenault.fr |
| Official websites of BPA sport marketing | www.bpa.cz |
