Carlin Motorsport driver, Will Power tamed the wild new Bilbao Urban Circuit in northern Spain today when he qualified on the front row for both of tomorrow’s races and took his second pole position in the World Series by Renault.˙ The Australian who hails from Toowoomba, Queensland, learnt the track quickly and has set the fastest time around the street circuit, a stunning lap of 1min49.957secs, which he laid down on the last lap of qualifying, securing his P1 grid spot for race two.
The inaugural event understandably experienced a few teething problems when the bumpy surface and tight, twisty corners caught out its fair share of drivers, forcing the recovery vehicles into overdrive.˙ The elongated red-flag periods during the Friday free practice sessions meant that the drivers had little more than15 laps to feel out the 4.037km of new terrain, the second session taking place at 8.30pm that evening.
Power’s group was first out to qualify this morning and he lead the 14 cars out of the pit-lane, but the session was red-flagged on the first lap after Will’s teammate, Andreas Zuber hit the wall damaging his car.˙ 14 minutes remained at the re-start and Will was quickly on provisional pole, pumping out 1min51’s and only dropping to P3, albeit briefly, with 4minutes to go.˙ Will ultimately topped the session with a lap of 1min50.993 before a final red-flag brought it to a close.˙ Although it eventuated that the next session was faster, the number crunching had to be done before the grid could be determined; the final results announced that Will’s ‘group’ pole puts him on the front row in P2 tomorrow alongside Pole Robert Kubica for the sprint race.
Will took his second overall pole position in qualifying two when, after surfacing on provisional pole throughout the session and setting a time of 1min50.017seconds to keep him there in the closing stages, he thoroughly re-confirmed his P1 grid spot on the last lap – the only driver to have broken into the 1min 49’s. Yugoslavian Milos Pavlovic, set a surprise fastest time for group two, and will grid up on the front row beside Will after the two groups were merged according to the .3% rule.
At the official press conference, Will enthused about the new Bilbao circuit “It’s a very Challenging track” he said.˙ “You risk a lot and if you come off you could do a lot of damage, the surface is very bumpy in places and it’s a hard, physical track – I like it.”
“It’s a good opportunity for me [to have pole]. I haven’t been to most tracks we race at and no-one has been here so it’s good for me to do well.˙ It’s a great chance for more championship points and the races should be very interesting – most races have been starting under safety car today, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.” Will said. Ends// b
WILL BAGS VICTORY NUMBER TWO!
Two trips to the podium today with one second and one first place meant Aussie, Will Power dominated the Bilbao race weekend, coming away with the largest overall points haul and propelling himself into 2nd position in the World Series by Renault Championship.
Due to the tight nature of the new Bilbao Urban Circuit the races were both started under Safety Car and from second place on the grid in race one it was almost impossible to challenge Pole Robert Kubica for the lead at the green flag.˙ There was a slight panic on lap two when the monitor showed ‘car 4 drive through’ and a huge sigh of relief a lap later when the officials realised their mistake, but Will thankfully hadn’t been aware of the commotion and continued to pace Kubica’s lead.
The re-start after a Safety Car on lap 5 proved uneventful and Power closed up the tiny gap to Kubica, crossing the line on lap 13 ahead of Frenchmen Tristan Gommendy and Eric Salignon to take his second podium of the season.˙
“When you start under Safety Car you take away the best chance of passing during the race around here [Bilbao], unless someone makes a mistake.” Explained Will afterwards. “But I really like this new track - it’s tough on the body and car and they are understandably having to work through a few problems, being the first ever meeting here.”
The pit-window rules were changed for Bilbao and rather than opening on lap five, there was opportunity to pit as soon as the leader crossed the line.˙ Will, who started from pole position took the lead at the green flag and pushed hard to gain a good lead over Yugoslavian, Milos Pavlovic in second place strengthening his gap to 5.9 seconds by lap five.
The Carlin team took this as the perfect opportunity to bring Will into pit and on lap six the tyre change went smoothly, Will rejoining the track in sixth place, first of those yet to pit.˙ Swede Alx Danielsson pitted on lap 7 and jumped Pavlovic, but it was not enough to get in front of Power who was promoted to P5 with 12 laps to go.
Meanwhile Italian Enrico Toccacelo was making the most of his new found lead and on lap 12 he was the only driver yet to pit, by this stage he had a determined Will breathing down his neck from second place.˙ However it was not long before Toccacelo was forced to make his mandatory stop and with 7 laps to go, Will lead the race until the chequered flag – enjoying his second victory in front of 140,000 race fans!
“I knew if there was no safety car we could win this one.” Said Will, still fresh with Champagne.˙ “It was essential for us to come here, push hard, do well and get more points than Kubica [who leads the championship].˙ The team was fantastic this weekend and my car and strategy were just right, we did what we came here to do and there are still four more race meetings to go to eat into Kubica’s points lead.” He explained.
The next race World Series by Renault meeting is at Oschersleben in Germany on August 6 and 7.
