The Grid

Jaime Alguersuari was the only “non-SG Formula” driver to make it to the podium in Formula Renault 2.0 at Barcelona: Jon Lancaster took another pair of Eurocup wins for the French team, while teammate Charles Pic finished twice in third. In the French Championship final rounds, SG Formula took an impressive 1-2-3 on Saturday and a fantastic 1-2-3-4 on Sunday, with Jules Bianchi and Jon Lancaster on the top step of the national series podiums.

Jon Lancaster has scored more wins than any other driver in this year’s Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. At the Circuit de Catalunya, he was second on race one’s grid, but made the best getaway and grabbed the lead at the first corner. The driver from Leeds eased away from the pack and set the fastest lap time on his way to another “God Save the Queen”. He produced a similar effort from pole on Sunday and was never headed to take his fifth Eurocup victory of the season.

Nürburgring race winner Charles Pic finished third in both races and also took the third spot in the final championship standings. The Frenchman had to battle hard to recover from start positions 6 and 4. Alexandre Marsoin took a solid fifth place on Saturday but struggled on Sunday and had to settle for eleventh. Jules Bianchi, who was still driving karts last year, experienced the Eurocup for the third time at Barcelona. Poleman at the Hungaroring, the newly-crowned French Champion suffered an engine failure during the collective tests at Barcelona, and qualified 7th and 6th. A clash at the start on Saturday caused a puncture and he retired at turn one, but he finished ninth on Sunday. Fabio Onidi and Anton Nebilitskyi arrived at the team at Estoril, and they performed well at Barcelona. The Italian driver moved up 10 places on Saturday and 12 on Sunday, and the Russian improved his pace in qualifying.

Before Sunday night’s prize giving ceremonies, Team-Manager Stéphane Guérin said: “we achieved our goal, which was to have Jon and Charles on the championship’s podium. Jon has gone down in the team’s history with his incredible series of four Eurocup wins in a row. Charles raised his game since Estoril, he pushed hard and overtook a lot. He did what he had to do to secure a superb championship position. Alex and Jules did a good job too, and I am also satisfied about how Fabio and Anton progressed throughout the week-end. It’s been a fantastic year for the team, with 15 race wins in France and Europe, and the French driver, team and rookie titles. Now we have to concentrate on preparing for the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and West European Cup as well as for our Formula 3 Euro Series debut.”

After picking up his fourth podium place of the season, Charles Pic

has moved up to 3^rd place on the Eurocup leaders' board. The rookie driver has opened up a gap between himself and his pursuers, and now he aims to steal into second place under SG Formula stable-mate Jon Lancaster’s nose.

The duel between Charles and his British team-mate started during open testing on a Portuguese circuit that neither of them had driven on before. Jon clocked the fastest time during the Thursday afternoon session, just ahead of Charles, who had to admit to a mistake in the third sector. But the young Frenchman fought back to clock the fastest time on the following day.

During qualifying both SG Formula drivers continued to lap above of the melee. "The weather was really hot in Estoril" said Charles. "With both our sets of new tyres we decided to go out with pressures set up so that the car would be at its peak for no more than two laps. And of course we were expecting to put in our fastest laps on the second set of tyres at the end of the session".

At this crucial moment in qualifying Charles' first flying lap was impeccable. In the next one he improved his time through the first and second sectors and appeared to be well on course for pole position. But in the third sector new team-mate Anton Nebiltskyi from Russia involuntarily got in his way as they were going through the parabolic turn that leads into the home straight. "I can't blame him for it, he didn't do it on purpose. Since that lap was a goner I let up with the intention of trying to clock a decent time in another one, but the tyre performance was dropping off by then.” Charles probably missed out on two pole positions because of that incident, ending up with just one good time when it looked as though he would clock two consecutive excellent times. However, that first flying lap earned him second place on the grid for Race 1, just 5 hundredths of a second behind the demon Jon Lancaster. As the grid positions for Race 2 are decided on the basis of each driver's second best lap time, Charles had to be content with 10^th.

On the Saturday, the start of the race saw no change in the order established during qualifying. Jon was ahead of Charles, who was keeping current Eurocup leader Brendon Hartley at bay with no problem. Seventeen laps later the same trio of drivers mounted the podium as would line up the following day in the same order on the championship’s table.

Sunday's racing turned out to be more of a challenge for Charles, though. Starting the race in 10^th place he quickly overtook Franck Kechele to move into 9^th place. Then with the most spectacular of overtaking manoeuvres he nicked 8^th spot from Jaime Alguersuari. The Spaniard was hugging the inside line coming off the main straight but it was to no avail! Charles went past him on the outside in a controlled skid with all wheels locked! After that exploit he set about hauling in the four drivers ahead of him, who were locked in a battle of their own. "Getting past Alguersuari cost me some flat spots on my tyres and the car began to vibrate. What's more, we had opted for a set up designed to help me move up through the field in the opening laps, so the car was losing performance as the laps went by. I still tried to attack Coletti but he managed to shut me out going into the bends where I might have tried to get past him."

Charles held on to take 8^th place. He goes into the final meeting of the season in Barcelona with great determination. He will be driving in four races and will be looking to seal a podium place in both the French championship and the Eurocup

La Rochelle-based team SG Formula dominated the 11th and 12th rounds of the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup. Jon Lancaster

scored two race victories, one pole position and two fastest laps, while Charles Pic completed a 1-2 for the French team on Saturday.

Jon Lancaster started the season with only two Formula Renault UK Winter Series meetings under his belt. Thanks to this brace of lights-to-flag wins in Portugal, one week after taking one French Championship victory at Magny-Cours, he has moved up to second in the provisional standings behind newly crowned Eurocup champion Brendon Hartley, and just three points ahead of team-mate Charles Pic. “Jon has the talent to become a great driver. Now the team knows all the words of God Save the Queen by heart!” Team-manager Stéphane Guérin said after the podium ceremony.

Charles Pic found a slower driver in his way in qualifying and lost an almost certain double pole position. He had to be satisfied with second and tenth. On Saturday, he secured a second place finish, and then recovered eighth on Sunday. Stéphane Guérin said: “Charles impressed again this week-end. He pushed hard, enjoyed himself and the way he overtook Jaime Alguersuari round the outside of Turn 1 was just breath-taking.”

Alexandre Marsoin has been through ups and downs. He qualified 8th and 6th but dropped back to 13th in race one. He ran fifth for much of the race on Sunday, and was an eventual sixth on the line after a hard battle. “When Alex is at his best, he can fight among the Top Five of the Eurocup” said Stéphane Guérin.

Two new drivers have joined the team’s line-up for the rest of the season: 18-year old Fabio Onidi, from Italy, and 17-year old Anton Nebiltskiy from Russia. “We had to get to kwow each other first. Fabio wasn’t able to make the best of his tyres in qualifying, but produced flying starts and solid races, to finish 12th on Sunday. I think he will surprise at Barcelona. Anton had a difficult start of his racing career over the past two years. He has a lot to learn, but he is motivated and showed huge potential. We had a great time working together. After an early clash in race one, he had to pit for a new crash box. We talked before he got back on track… and he set the eighth fastest time and was the fastest driver in the second sector, which is the most difficult in Estoril” said Stéphane Guérin.

SG Formula is heading to Barcelona with six Eurocup entries, including the 2007 French champion Jules Bianchi. The team is aiming to secure second and third positions in the Eurocup’s final ranking.

In his home race in Magny-Cours, Charles Pic was the top points scorer of all the drivers in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. The driver from Montélimar nearly got into pole position during the qualifying session, which was run on a dry track, before an intelligent drive took him into second place in Race 1 in the rain. Since the race winner was not entered in the championship, Charles picked up maximum points. So come the Sunday, everyone was expecting him to pick up more than a miserly two points.

The young guns of the Eurocup made the most of the occasion to perfect their expertise on the Magny-Cours circuit and to fine tune their cars during two 2hr 25 minute sessions on the Thursday, and two three-quarter hour sessions the next day. "My car was not running particularly well on the Thursday morning but my engineer Cyril Comte worked some magic and had it well set up for the afternoon session, in which I clocked the 3rd-fastest time," explained Charles. "But we still felt we hadn't got things entirely sorted out, both from the driving and set up point of view. So we tried a different approach on the Friday but it turned out to be no better so we went back to the original set up for the qualifying laps."

As the sun rose on a beautiful Saturday morning, 39 drivers went in search of the fastest lap. Charles showed that the work put in with the team was worthwhile by signing the 2^nd fastest time overall, just five thousandths of a second slower than poleman Brendon Hartley, the current championship leader. The second fastest times classification earned him third place on the starting grid in Race 2. Charles was barely satisfied though: "I reckon I could have done better" complained our friend the perfectionist!

As midday approached the skies over Magny-Cours began to look menacing, so the engineers started loading wet track set up configurations from their hard disks. Sure enough, the heavens had opened as the first race started. The leaders literally plunged into the Estoril bend in the same order as had been established during qualifying. But by the half-way mark in the race Charles, who had been on Brendon Hartley's tail from the start, saw his rival go off in front of him, ending up in the sand. No sooner had the SG Formula driver taken the lead than Mathieu Arzeno slipped past him at Adelaide. "I didn't try to stop him because I knew that if he won the points wouldn't count in the championship. Anyway, he definitely looked faster than me." So Charles decided to go for the precious second spot, not without a few close shaves along the way. "In slippery conditions when you are on the attack all the way you have to expect a few sticky moments. You have to stay focused and try not to fall into any traps."

The weekend's big disappointment came in race 2, which took place under dry conditions. "I did a practice start as usual before the warm up lap but I noticed there was too much wheelspin. So I told myself I had to do things a bit better when it came to the real start. But the drive wheels started overspinning again after declutching so I lifted my foot off the throttle. Then the tyres got grip again so suddenly that my engine stalled! I did manage to get started again but found myself back down in 26^th place." Fighting his way courageously back through the field, Charles was lying 16^th half way through the race, and finished it in 11^th place. Who was it who said it was hard to overtake at Magny-Cours? In the end he inherited 10^th place in the race following Mihai Marinescu's exclusion, which gave him another 2 championship points.

Taking the weekend as a whole, Charles was the best rookie in the class and top-placed Eurocup-entered Frenchman. He took the biggest haul of championship points from the European meeting. Thus he made up for a disappointing showing at Donington at the start of the month. "Hartley is virtually assured of the title, but the scrap for 2^nd place is going to be interesting because a bunch of us are still in with a chance in the championship." You can say that again! Stefano Coletti and Franck Kechele, who are lying respectively 3^rd and 2^nd, are only one and two points ahead of the SG Formula driver. But he'll need to be watching over his shoulder for those behind him! However, Charles is up for it, and will be looking to progress next October 20-21 at the circuit in Estoril.

Charles Pic is still the best rookie in the provisional championship standings, after he scored more points than any other driver in the French rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. The 17-year old qualified second and third, and missed the pole position by only 0’’005. In a rainy race one, he briefly took the lead after series leader Brendon Hartley went off at Estoril, but French championship race winner Mathieu Arzeno found a way past Charles at Adelaïde hairpin. The SG Formula driver didn’t really threaten his compatriot after the move, because the latter was in a one-off appearance in the Eurocup. Consequently, Charles scored 15 points, just like if he’d won. The track was dry on Sunday. Charles spent most of the race catching back up from stalling on the grid. He had an impressive recovery from 26^th at the first corner to 10^th on the line. Hartley nearly sealed the title with four rounds to spare by taking another podium finish, but there will be a pretty interesting battle for the runner-up spot at Estoril and Barcelona. Franck Kechele, Stefano Coletti and Charles Pic have 55, 54 and 53 points respectively in the championship table.

Two weeks after claiming his maiden motor sport victory at Donington Park, Jon Lancaster was in a position to confirm on this side of the Channel. He started both races from 4^th. The driver from Leeds lost 4^th place in a spin on Saturday’s slippery track. He dropped down to 21^st but crossed the line in 11^th and scored two points. He was running a superb second on Sunday when he cut a chicane and got a drive through penalty. The British driver is still in contention to finish runner-up in the series.

Alexandre Marsoin drove solid races in Donington but struggled in mid-field on home soil. He went off in qualifying and had to start from 26^th and 25^th. He managed to move up in both races, but not enough to score. French championship regular Edouard Texte made his Eurocup debut at Magny-Cours. Poor qualifying resulted in being stuck at the back of the pack throughout the races for the rookie. But the important race mileage he got may help him to improve his pace in the next national event, which is also scheduled to take place at the French Grand Prix venue.

Team-manager Stéphane Guérin said: “we tested various set-ups in Thursday and Friday’s collective tests, and I am satisfied with Charles Pic and Jon Lancaster’s achievements in qualifying. You have to keep in mind that our drivers have little experience in the category, compared to other teams like Epsilon. But sometimes, it makes things even more interesting, like when Charles kept the metal-to-the-pedal into the Nürburgring chicane during the qualifying session. We could read a minimum speed of 199 kph on the data, which is an excellent performance with a Formula Renault 2.0 car. It paid off in qualifying and he drove an excellent race on Saturday. It’s a shame that he lost so many points on Sunday. Jon also performed well, especially round Estoril. But I am disappointed with his results. He was hit from behind by another driver, which caused him cutting the chicane. But he actually gained momentum coming out of the chicane, and he overtook another car in the process. He should have lifted to allow this car past, and may have avoided the drive through penalty.”

The next Eurocup rounds will take place at the famous Estoril circuit in Portugal on October 20-21, where SG Formula set the pace in all the pre-event tests in 2005, then took one pole, two fastest lap, one win and two podiums in 2005.

SG Formula is the only French team entered in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup. But the trip to the Hungaroring has left a bad taste lingering in the mouths of everyone in the team, despite the podium places won by Jon Lancaster and Nelson Panciatici.
26 out of 38 drivers picked up penalties during qualifying. Amongst those to have one or more of their best lap times docked were Jules Bianchi, who had won both pole positions, and Charles Pic, who was lying 2nd in the championship standings going into the race.

Team-manager Stéphane Guérin decided to speak out and say why he found the events of the weekend in Hungary so hard to digest.
“When you turn up on a track you don't know and straight away you clock the three fastest times then of course you are going to be disappointed when you see an outcome like this. You start to wonder what on earth went wrong. Now I'm all for enforcing discipline with penalties and for using the latest data analysis techniques as proof when things go wrong. It is perfectly normal to penalise things like dangerous driving, deliberate shunting, failure to observe the yellow flag, or practicing starts during the warm-up lap. But sometimes the race stewards get a bit carried away or hand out punishment that doesn't fit the crime. In Nürburgring, Jules Bianchi went round another car in order to avoid running into it during a botched safety-car procedure that created a bottleneck. All he got for his pains was two drive-throughs in the next meeting. The race organisers didn't bother to examine the driver's manoeuvre from the safety angle nor did they give him any real means of recourse. In other words, all he could hope for in Hungary was to familiarise himself with the track and try to pick up the fastest lap time in the race, which he duly did. He clocked up the two fastest laps in the Hungaroring qualifying session, including a superb 1’43’’6 which was by far the best of the week's racing. A totally faultless lap, we should add, with not the slightest hint of irregularity. That didn't stop them taking it away from him for going off during another lap. He restarted that lap driving very gingerly, and finished it 10 seconds slower than he would have done normally.

“A similar fate awaited Charles Pic. Attacking corners a little too strongly, he put the wheels on the wrong side of the white line a couple of times. But, realising his mistake, on both occasions he eased off and it didn’t result in an improvement to his lap times. They scratched his two best times for that, both of them perfectly valid. I can’t think of anything more frustrating than that for drivers, engineers and the whole team alike. What I see is that a driver who attacks during qualifying is penalised. It's a pure speed exercise after all! You can't blame a driver for the odd mistake, unless you want to take the soul out of motor racing. To my mind that's not the way it should be in the Eurocup. We are talking about an international class single-seat motor racing category, one that is currently the best preparation for F3, World Series 3.5 and GP2, and I want it to stay that way. If we are going to get carried away with penalties then it won't be a motor sport any more. The severity of the penalty handed out to Charles Pic may affect the outcome of the championships. He was ahead of his closest rivals on the starting grid before he picked up those penalties. The gap between him and the current leader is not a true reflection of the relative performance of the teams and drivers. It's unfair. We trudged away from the track with the impression of having lost a race we couldn't lose.”

On the results front, SG Formula was nevertheless able to console itself with Jon Lancaster's first podium place in the category, and the return to form of Nelson Panciatici. The Briton finished second on Saturday. RDD driver Panciatici took third place on Sunday after starting in second place on the grid. The previous day he had lost out due to a crash at the start of the race, but he's still in with a chance of doing something in the championship, in which he is currently lying 7th.

French championship leader Jules Bianchi, making his second appearance on the European stage, was poleman on the Saturday but was eliminated at the first bend - shunted from behind! He was diabolically fast all weekend, as you can see from the best race lap time he clocked on the Sunday, after having served his drive through.

Starting from back on 18th place on the grid on the Saturday, for the reasons we have seen, Charles Pic carved magnificently through the field to take the chequered flag in 6th place. In doing so, he managed to get past close championship rival Henki Waldschmidt on the final lap. But after starting right back in 36th place he couldn't hope for much in Sunday's race, which anyway he went out of trying to overtake. So today he sits 3rd on the current Eurocop leaders board.

Alexandre Marsoin came within one place of picking up his first championship point. His performance during open practice showed that if it hadn't been for a couple of irregularities he might have been in contention for a podium place.

Looking at the performance of his drivers, Stéphane Guérin said: “The whole team is thrilled to see Jon on the podium for the first time. They think so much of him. This is an important first step, but there is still scope for improvement, especially when it comes to new tyres management. But he's learning fast and this second place is a just reward for all the effort he has put into improving himself. After a rough patch Nelson was glad to be back on the podium too, bringing himself back into contention in the championship. He needs to build on this result. Penalty points apart, Charles was quick all weekend. The way he qualified was not perfect by any means, partly our fault because he rejoined the session behind two of his stable-mates just when he left the pitlane with his second set of new tyres. He was as steady as a rock on the Saturday, picking up unexpected points. If Hungaroring was a tough outing for the rookie then so will Donington be, because it is a track that most of his rivals, unlike him, are familiar with. But everyone will be doing their utmost to keep his hopes alive in the championship. Alex has a tendency to make unforced errors, which is a shame considering his natural talent. He's gone up a notch since his win in Dijon, he just needs to work serenely. Circumstances prevented Jules from doing anything in the race but he nevertheless signed a peerless fastest lap on the Sunday. All he needs to improve is the way he starts races. Although it doesn't appear on the official results, I think his 1’43’’6 lap time raised more than a few eyebrows. He displayed talent worthy of the best at European level. We've been flat out in two consecutive races now, even having to change Alexandre Marsoin's clutch fork in record-breaking time! We got what is normally a 3-hour job done in one.”

Team SG Formula Nürburgring Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 May 5/6 07

Eurocup F.Renault: overall win for SG Formula’s Rookie

For the first time this season and in SG Formula’s history, a Rookie driver won a Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 race. Last week-end at the Nürburgring, 17 year-old Charles Pic secured pole position for races 1 and 2, took 2nd place on Saturday and a stunning lights to flag win on Sunday. Thanks to this achievements, he is now 2nd in the standings, six points behind the leader.

Charles Pic ended his first single seater season on the third step of the podium of the French Formula Campus championship last year. In Germany, Former F1 driver Eric Bernard’s protégé could have won both races. The stewards put Henki Waldschmidt’s Saturday start under investigation, and it took them nearly 24 hours to confirm the Dutchman as winner. But on Sunday, Charles got away into a clear lead at the start. Closely chased by Waldschmidt, he never put a foot wrong and took his maiden win in Formula Renault 2.0. He also set the fastest lap. “We probably witnessed the birth of a new star” said team boss Stéphane Guérin. “Charles deserved victory today, and I think he is going to win other races this year.”

SG Formula’s reputation for grooming future champions is strengthened by Charles Pic’s European success, one week after Jules Bianchi took two Formula Renault wins and became championship leader in France. Jules is also 17, and he was still a Karting racer last year. With only two national meetings under his belt, he got a “wild card” to enter the Nürburgring event… and set the fastest time in the first collective test sessions! The young gun from Brignoles had never driven at the German venue before. In qualifying, Jules was fourth fastest, but the stewards withdrew all his lap times, for overtaking during a yellow flag procedure. “Jules made a mistake, but the penalty is too severe” said Stéphane Guérin. With 42 cars on the entry list, Nicolas Todt’s protégé lost the opportunity to fight in the leading pack, but was the second fastest driver in Race 1.

RDD’s Nelson Panciatici dominated pre-season testing. At the Nürburgring, he proved fast in practice, but had to be content with two points after poor qualifying. “Nelson scored at Zolder and scored again yesterday, we are going to work harder and he will soon be back where he should be to challenge for the title” said Stéphane Guérin. Penalized after Race 1, Alexandre Marsoin climbed from 12th on the grid to 8th, but logically dropped 19th after his drive through. Britton Jon Lancaster made a step forward in Germany, in performance and consistency, and came home close to scoring his first championship point on Sunday.

The next Eurocup meeting will take place in Hungary after a two month-break. But SG Formula aces will take part in the third French Formula Renault event next week-end at Dijon.

Nelson Panciatici wasn’t able to run more than one flying lap, so he could only fight for points paying positions on Saturday. From 5th on the grid, he finished 4th after a spectacular passing manoeuvre on Oliver Oakes, and was classified 3rd after the scrutineers disqualified Henki Waldschmidt. But the Dutchman’s team has appealed against this decision, so wait and see. On Sunday, the RDD driver did his best to recover from 19th on the starting grid, but he damaged his front wing and retired.

Charles Pic could set 7th and 2nd times in qualifying before crashing his car quite heavily. He strongly battled in the field in race one, overtook, was pushed off the track, overtook again to be an eventual 10th and score one point, thanks to Waldschmidt’s disqualification. The French Rookie looked able to challenge the poleman Brendon Hartley for victory in race two. He was third in early stages, rapidly found a way past Waldschmidt… and was logically handed a drive through penalty for overtaking while the yellow flags were out. Before he joined the pit-lane, he was closing on the leader. He set the second fastest lap, only two hundredth of a second slower than a dominant Hartley.

Unlucky Alexandre Marsoin was collected by another driver in Race 1, and his efforts to recover 11th on Sunday could be rewarded by one championship point. It will depend on the “Waldschmidt affair” conclusion. The driver who collected Alex also collected Jon Lancaster in Saturday’s race! This resulted in two more cars to fix for the SG Formula crew, after Charles and Jon’s crashes in qualifying. World Karting Championship runner-up in 2005, Jon started his Formula Renault 2.0 career in last year’s Winter Series. The Belgian event was only his third outing in the category. He spun in Sunday’s race, but set a very fast time, similar to the frontrunners’.

SG Formula will have six cars on the grid for Jules Bianchi, Edouard Texte, Nelson Panciatici, Charles Pic, Alexandre Marsoin and Jon Lancaster in the second French championship meeting this week-end at Lédenon. The next European destination is the Nürburgring, for the next round of the World Series by Renault, on May 5th and 6th.

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 / Zolder, 1st and 2nd rounds, April 21st / 22nd 2007

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Charles held on to take 8th place. He goes into the final meeting of the season in Barcelona with great determination. He will be driving in four races and will be looking to seal a podium place in both the French championship and the Eurocup

Charles held on to take 8^th place. He goes into the final meeting of the season in Barcelona with great determination. He will be driving in four races and will be looking to seal a podium place in both the French championship and the Eurocup