Podiums and points for Carlin in Nurbürgring

Robert Wickens took second place for Carlin today, in round nine of the 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series. The Canadian led for the majority of the race, but with the result decided in the end by pit stop strategy, crossed the line second to take the lead in the drivers’ championship. Team mate Jean-Eric Vergne also enjoyed a strong outing and crossed the line fourth.
 
The weather stayed dry for the final race of the weekend, with Wickens lining up on pole and Vergne third. At the start, both Carlin men held their positions, with Wickens leading second placed man Brendon Hartley, and Vergne third ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.
 
The order remained unchanged for several laps until the pit stop window opened on lap six. Only a few cars stopped early, which proved to be a wise decision as a safety car period followed a lap later while marshals cleared the crashed cars of Jake Rosenzweig and Anton Nebylitskiy. With none of the front runners having stopped, it soon became clear that the race would be won on pit stop strategy. The front runners took the decision to run as long as possible in order to build up a gap before making their mandatory pit stop.
 
Vergne pitted from third on lap 19 along with second placed man Hartley. A quick pit stop by the Carlin team and a problem for Hartley put Vergne out ahead. Wickens pitted from the lead a lap later, along with second place Ricciardo. As the drivers rejoined the race the order became more clear, with Vergne having jumped Hartley and Ricciardo, putting him just behind Wickens.
 
The race for victory wasn’t clear cut however; Kevin Korjus had been one of the first drivers to pit, just before the safety car period and had benefitted from the field bunching up following his stop. That gave Korjus the edge and suddenly elevated him into the lead, with Fairuz Fauzy running second following a similar strategy.
 
Wickens was now running third, with Vergne just behind in fourth, but the Canadian had Fauzy in his sights. With only three laps remaining, Wickens managed to close the gap and snatch second on the penultimate lap, with Vergne also closing in. The Red Bull Junior halved the gap to Fauzy on the final lap but ran out of time to make a move, and had to settle for fourth.
 
Speaking about the race, Wickens said, “It was quite a complex race in the end, we were looking good for another win, but unfortunately the safety car played a really big part in the race today. Given how the race worked out and the surprise factor of the safety car, I think second is a result that we can be really pleased with.”
 
Trevor Carlin added, “The safety car really threw in a curved ball today and put a lot of people on the back foot in terms of pit stop strategy. In the end the only thing the leaders could do was to go as long as possible and try and pull out more of a gap. In the end it wasn’t quite enough to win us the race, which is what Robert deserved, but second and fourth is still a great result for the team and the drivers did a great job.”
 
As the championship leader at the half way point of the season, Wickens will get a taste of the Renault F1 car at the next round in Hungary. 

Carlin press release