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World Series by Renault / FR 3.5 / Barcelona 

Bertrand Baguette ends the season within reach of the podium! 

For the final time this season the World Series by Renault set up camp, and this time around the circuit of Catalunya that once again welcomed the final round, generally well suited to Bertrand Baguette. And as per usual tradition the young Belgian driving for the Draco team, went well on Friday during the two test sessions, ending the first official day at the top of the timesheets! A great omen for the future, even though Bertrand did not want to get carried away, seeing matters often become more complicated on the Saturday.  

This time around the qualifying session, held in very wet conditions, went well with a 3rd best time for Baguette. And seeing that the Super Pole had been annulled due to unfavourable climatic conditions, the Draco driver knew that he would be starting off from the 6th and 3rd places respectively on the two starting grids. A top 6 which Bertrand retained in the first heat, held on the Saturday afternoon on a dry track. However pretty soon the Safety Car came on to the track and with the restart there was a heavy entanglement on the Catalan track.. "Guerrieri, who was leading the group experienced a problem, and all the drivers following on went off in all directions in order to avoid him ", Baguette explained.”The Russian driver Afanasiev, who was in front of me slammed on the brakes...and I was unable to avoid him, hitting him with my front aileron! Nevertheless I was able to carry on the race and all in all the handling of the single-seater was pretty good. To such an extent that I climbed up into 4th spot. And then out of the blue the steering broke and I landed up in a sand trap..." 

A further disillusionment on a black background for Bertrand, quite clearly one of the fastest of the pack, but also the most unlucky... "What can I say, apart from the fact that we appear to be collecting the weirdest problems ", a disheartened Bertrand continued.”Something different seems to happen at each race, but the outcome is always the same. I was in Jousse’s wake when I was forced to retire, and the Frenchman won the race. Really frustrating!" 

This Sunday Bertrand Baguette was fully determined to make the most of his 3rd place on the start grid, knowing that he would be avoiding the traditional nudges in the pack behind. Salvador Duran was obliged to take the start from the pitlane, and Baguette attempted to surprise Esteban Guerrieri at the start, without success. The Draco driver built up attack upon attack with a view to destabilising the Argentinean, and on three occasions he even tried to take the outside line at the end of the straight, but to no avail. After the compulsory pit stop of the main leaders, Bertrand was up in 4th place, breathing down on Walker, Guerrieri and Wickens. "I was quite clearly faster than Guerrieri, and perhaps I should have called in earlier than the others ", Baguette commented.”The pit-stop went off perfectly, but the strategy used by both Walker and Wickens was better. If I had been able to get passed, the ending might have been even better..." Finishing this final 2008 round in 4th place, Bertrand Baguette has rounded off the FR 3.5 competition in 6th position. "This obviously has nothing to do with our initial objective, but what is more important for me is the fact that Adriano Morini is entirely satisfied with my work. We lacked a fair amount of good fortune, especially in Monza, at the Nürburgring and in Estoril, but at least we proved that we were fast everywhere. We’re in for a long inter-season, but we’ll make good use of those months to prepare ourselves for 2009 ..." 

World Series by Renault / Estoril (P) 

Bertrand Baguette ends the weekend at the foot of the podium 

For the penultimate meeting of 2008 the World Series by Renault found itself at the Portuguese circuit of Estoril, where above all Bertrand Baguette wanted to forget all about the difficult weekend he had experienced at Le Mans last time out.  And he did get the weekend off to a good start, the Draco set a best overall lap time during the initial free practice session. The yellow single-seater’s ideal set-up was confirmed a few hours later, with the 2nd best time; a mere tenth of a second from the fastest lap time.  

This was enough to make Bertrand pretty optimistic, prior to setting off for the qualifying sessions. Foremost objective: to qualify for the Superpole. An assignment readily completed, with a 3rd best time in his group, and once again one tenth of a second off the reference time. A few minutes later it was the 7th overall place which came the Belgian driver’s way.  "At that moment it became warmer and we hadn’t had the opportunity to check out our set-up under those conditions ", Baguette explained.”The car proved to be somewhat less efficient, but with a 7th time overall I’m al least sure that I’ll be starting from the front row of the grid this Saturday afternoon.." 

With a good start at the green light, Bertrand managed to get the better of the Italian Marco Bonanomi, who was on pole. Even though the latter rather tried to push the Draco driver towards the wall, the Belgian driver didn’t allow himself to be upset by this. However it wasn’t all ‘roses and wine because of Marcos Martinez! The Spanish driver had set off from the 2nd row somehow managed to collide with the two up front!

"His manœuvre was quite simply incomprehensible", Baguette explained. "Apart from running us off I can’t really see what he was hoping to achieve! My rear tyre was deflated, and my rear aileron was broken! And on top of that Martinez carried on as if nothing had happened! He obviously got penalised afterwards, but in the meanwhile my race was over! I tried to carry on for a couple of laps, but with a broken aileron, the handling was pretty bad. The tyre finally blew, and that’s where it ended. Frustrating, because once again it was external circumstances that stopped us from bringing this to a successful conclusion, especially knowing that we had the speed!" 

On Sunday Baguette was on the 4th row for the start of the second race where he just managed to avoid Brazilian Fabio Carbone who had stalled on the grid! Up in 5th place at the first braking zone, the RACB National Team driver was back at the wheel of a well set-up single-seater, even though he remained stuck behind Jousse and Bonanomi. "It’s quite tricky to overtake on this track, and we therefore decided to carry out an early compulsory stop.

An excellent idea; because when the pit-stop window closed I was up in 4th spot, and ahead of Bonanomi. A place I retained right through to the end of the race, so at least I finished the weekend on a high note..."

Following this penultimate round of the championship Bertrand Baguette is 7th in the rankings, within sight of Mikhail Aleshin and Julien Jousse.

On 17th and 18th October next the Draco driver has every intention of finishing off the championship in full strength.. "I have nothing to lose, and I’m aiming at clinching a 2nd victory after my success at Spa. It is particularly important to finish off the season on a high, and you can rest assured that I’ll do my utmost during that final in Barcelona, a track where I have scored well in the past..."