Pic mounts assault on Kevin Korjus
Arthur Pic (Tech 1 Racing) relaunched his Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 title hopes with a perfect weekend at Brno, grabbing two pole positions, two wins and two fastest race laps. At Magny-Cours, the Frenchman will be looking for a repeat performance, in order to close the gap on Kevin Korjus (Koiranen Bros Motorsport). The ice cool Estonian nevertheless arrives at the French circuit with a comfortable lead in the overall standings.
Brno saw in-roads starting to be made into Kevin Korjus’ domination of this season’s Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Sure enough, with three victories and a second place finish from the first four races, the Estonian driver with Koiranen Bros Motorsport had got off to a remarkable start. At Brno it was in qualifying that the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 leader had one or two mishaps, but once again he showed all his skill in racing with more cool overtaking. Eventually finishing fourth and seventh at Brno, the 17 year-old still chalked up points that could prove decisive at the end of the season.
Kevin Korjus knows that the men he chiefly needs to look out for are Luciano Bacheta (Interwetten) and Arthur Pic. Bacheta, currently second in the overall standings, has seventeen points to catch up on Korjus, but is showing impressive consistency this season. He has always finished in the first five, and has notched up three podiums in six races. As he admits himself, he needs to up the ante in qualifying if he is to take a first win in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. This will be his objective as of Magny-Cours, a circuit where he performed exceptionally well in winter testing.
Arthur Pic comes to Magny-Cours, for the French round of the World Series by Renault, with the wind in his sails. From day one this season he has been too hot to handle in qualifying, clocking up five pole positions. But the driver from Montelimar needed a perfect weekend to get back in contention. Brno was that weekend. He took the win in both races, bringing his number of victories to three this season. To date, each time Arthur Pic finishes a race, he wins it. If he is to make up the twenty-four point shortfall over Kevin Korjus, the Tech 1 Racing driver has no choice, he must perform a similar feat at Magny-Cours, the race which marks the mid-point of the season.
His teammates at Tech 1 Racing, Aaro Vainio and Hugo Valente will also have their cards to play. Race after race, the Finn is looking more and more comfortable. Meanwhile, Hugo Valente, the second Frenchman entered in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, will try to be as effective as he was in the opening round of the season, at Motorland Aragon, where he stood on the second step of the podium.
There will likely be many in with a shout for a win at Magny-Cours, starting with the Epsilon Euskadi drivers. Fourth overall, Genis Olivé (Epsilon Euskadi) has regularly been in the points, but has yet to up the pace enough to mix it with the leaders, and the same goes for Miguel Otegui (Epsilon Euskadi). Both newcomers to the discipline, Giovanni Venturini (Epsilon Euskadi) and Alex Ribeiras (Epsilon Euskadi) have already proved they have a turn of pace. At sixteen, the Spaniard climbed the second step of the podium after only six attempts in single seat racing. He was very much at ease at Magny-Cours this winter, producing the best time of the first day of collective testing. He’s now looking for a win. His rivals are warned, they’ll need to look out for him.
Official Renault Sport Press Release