Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Nick Yelloly wins wet/dry Nurburgring Formula Renault 3.5 race

Nick Yelloly became the first multiple winner of the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 season as he took a dominant victory in changeable conditions at the Nurburgring

The Comtec driver, who started the race down in 14th, made his way up to seventh by the end of the first lap as the first spots of rain started to fall.

He was one of several drivers to brave the first shower without coming in for wets, and when the rain stopped many of the frontrunners came in for their mandatory pitstop for fresh slick tyres.

But Yelloly and Marco Sorensen stayed out longer than most, with the Dane leading. However, when Lotus driver Sorensen finally came in, the rain started to fall again.

That enabled Yelloly to make his only stop of the race and switch to wets, while Sorensen had to come in again to get himself on the correct tyre.

While Yelloly enjoyed a lead of almost half a minute, Sorensen had to fight with Andre Negrao (Draco), who had also managed to stay out until the second shower and make only one stop. But the Brazilian was struggling for pace, partly due to a damaged front wing.

Sorensen eventually made it through three laps from the end with a daring pass around the outside of Turn 5. That left Negrao to defend from the ISR duo of Jake Rosenzweig and Sam Bird.

He managed to hang on to his podium place, but Rosenzweig went off just a few corners from the flag, promoting Bird to fourth.

Bird's championship rival Robin Frijns was just behind, after the pair had fought wheel to wheel for the lead early in the race. Bird came out on top in that duel, but lost out to the Dutchman during their first stops. He put that right when they came back in for wets, staying out a lap longer and jumping the Fortec driver again.

Of the drivers to gamble on the early switch to wets, which meant making three stops in total as they reacted to each change in conditions, P1's Daniil Move and Carlin's Kevin Magnussen came home highest in seventh and eighth.

Race one winner Jules Bianchi (Tech 1) was in the thick of the battle for the lead in the early laps, and was the first car to pit for new slicks when it was clear the first rainshower wasn't going to last. However, the Ferrari junior driver went off on his out-lap, and spent the rest of the race running almost a lap down.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Nick Yelloly            Comtec           46m27.491s
 2.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus             + 27.123s
 3.  Andre Negrao            Draco             + 30.076s
 4.  Sam Bird                ISR               + 31.088s
 5.  Robin Frijns            Fortec            + 34.593s
 6.  Mikhail Aleshin         RFR               + 48.087s
 7.  Daniil Move             P1                + 49.463s
 8.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin            + 53.218s
 9.  Alexander Rossi         Arden Caterham  + 1m00.540s
10.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham  + 1m01.223s
11.  Lucas Foresti           DAMS            + 1m22.090s
12.  Jules Bianchi           Tech 1          + 1m27.105s
13.  Will Stevens            Carlin          + 1m32.809s
14.  Giovanni Venturini      BVM Target      + 1m36.536s
15.  Walter Grubmuller       P1              + 1m38.609s
16.  Anton Nebylitskiy       RFR             + 1m56.650s
17.  Jake Rosenzweig         ISR                 + 1 lap
18.  Zoel Amberg             Pons                + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Nico Muller             Draco               13 laps
     Arthur Pic              DAMS                12 laps
     Nikolay Martsenko       BVM Target           9 laps
     Kevin Korjus            Tech 1               5 laps
     Vittorio Ghirelli       Comtec               2 laps
     Cesar Ramos             Lotus                0 laps
     Yann Cunha              Pons                 0 laps
     Carlos Huertas          Fortec               0 laps

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Robin Frijns takes first Formula Renault 3.5 pole at the Nurburgring
Next article Sam Bird sets fastest time in first practice at brand new Moscow Raceway

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe