Motorsports Mondial

ROSSI CROWNED ROOKIE CHAMPION AND TAKES THIRD PLACE IN 2011 WSR DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

F1weekly friend Alexander Rossi has won the 2011 World Series by Renault – FR 3.5 series Rookie Championship and secured third place in the Drivers’ Championship at the season finale in Barcelona, Spain today. His team, Fortec Motorsports, took 2nd place in the Constructors’ Championship.

At the Circuit de Catalunya this morning Alexander was running in the top four for most of the second qualifying session. Only one second separated the top 12 runners, making for a potentially mixed front end of the grid. With such close fastest lap times and some brake issues which carried over from yesterday, Rossi qualified in P7 for the final race of the season.

No one could have predicted the eventful first lap of the race this afternoon! An incident between championship leader Wickens and Vergne took both Carlin cars out of contention and Rossi became boxed in during the ensuing scramble for position at turns one and two. He made contact with Hartley causing some right front damage to his No:7 Fortec which hampered its performance for the entire race. When the safety car was deployed for the next lap, the team took advantage and Rossi came into the pits for a quick stop, allowing him to pass three cars when he rejoined the action. Rossi took the chequered flag at the end of the 26 laps race in seventh position and with six championship points to guarantee his third place in the Drivers’ Championship and to take the Rookie Champion crown.

Alexander Rossi “Qualifying was not good for us at all. I had little confidence in the brakes all weekend and you need high downforce and late braking to take advantage in the race today. We changed what we could but had no idea how the changes would affect the car as we could not test it before running. I’ll put my hands up – I made a poor start to the race and in the mayhem into turns one and two I managed to get out relatively unscathed, apart from a bent front right. I still had braking issues, and nowhere near the pace of the leaders, but we had enough to reach a top ten finish, which is what we needed to secure P3 in the Championship today. It was not the way I had envisaged ending the season, but I am happy with our result; for me and the team, and would like to thank everybody for all their hard work this season which enabled me to win the Rookie Championship for Fortec too. ”

Jamie Dye, Team Manager, Fortec Motorsports “It was very close between all the drivers today in qualifying, which meant that we had a mixed grid for the start of the race. Alexander started in P7 and lost a few places in the first lap battle, but we soon made up position when we opted to pit during the safety car. It was an average race by the rest of the season’s standard, but we were in a comfortable position to achieve six points with Alexander’s seventh position finish and to secure second place in the Team Championship. It is a well deserved third place for Alexander in the Drivers’ Championship; we are all extremely happy, congratulations to everyone at Fortec Motorsports and we look forward to having car numbers three and four next year!”