Great celebrations and big tears of joy were had by the Interwetten Racing Junior Team after the second race of the Formula Renault 2.0 at the Hungaroring. After 15 laps on the 4,381 meter long up and down track, Luciano Bacheta stood at the very top and celebrated his first victory with his Interwetten team. Team colleague and newcomer Sandro Lukovic collected another point and finished a great race in 14th place. After Luciano had fallen back from second place due to gear problems in Saturday’s race of the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, on Sunday the Brit won convincingly ahead of French Arthur Pic and Finnish Aaro Vainio.
The foundation for the first victory of the Interwetten.com Junior team, founded in 2010 around team manager Michael Schneider, was laid by the team early in the morning. With a well prepared vehicle, team and drivers were going for the first victory. “We want to leave for the summer break with a perfect result” said team manager Michael Schneider at the meeting. Bacheta’s reply was: “Well, then I’m going to make it today”, and indeed he was true to his word.
Pole sitter Vainio slipped up as he did the day before, inviting Luciano to take the lead with a perfect start. In the third bend, bad luck got Adam Kout. The Czech hooked his rear tyre into his competitor’s car and rose into the air like a glider. A hard upside down crash without any injuries and the safety car followed.
Bacheta showed a repeat performance at the re-start and left Pic and Vainio well behind. In the fifth lap, top of the table Korjus lost the fourth place to Will Stevens. Bart Hylkema also overtook the Estonian before the entire middle field was filled with wild duels. Changing positions at every bend and a few hits had to be expected.
Sandro improved from starting place 16 to 12th place before the Interwetten young star slipped through the tumults back to place 14. “Still a fabulous performance”, team manager Schneider is happy: “Yesterday, in only his third race, he already showed a great performance which was rewarded with 5 points. Today, his inexperience still showed through but I am certain that this will improve. Luciano had the podium yesterday within reach but it just was not to be. The gear electronics got in the way for us. Today’s victory makes us all the more happy, after all it is the first one in our young team history.”
Hugo Valente provided another bit of excitement just two laps before the finish and crashed into the side barriers in the fourth bend. Luciano however did not take any chances at that stage and secured his win ahead of Pic and Vainio. “Everything just went perfectly today. I easily controlled the race and my car worked faultlessly. We had the right set up and I caught the start perfectly. After that it was just a case of bringing the race home. That was just the right answer to Saturday’s bad luck”, beamed the 20 year old.
The next races of the World Series by Renault will take place after the summer break at the German hosted race in Hockenheim from 3rd to 5th September.