Robert Wickens completed a dominant weekend at Silverstone by winning the Formula Renault 3.5 series feature race ahead of Alexander Rossi.
Wickens fended off the initial challenge from Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo before the pit stops and then kept his fellow North American Rossi at bay until the chequered.
What’s more, Wickens’ fourth win of the season coupled with Vergne’s eventual fifth place has ensured Carlin are the team champions for 2011.
And after his late arrival to the circuit this morning, Wickens was pleased to earn maximum points from the weekend.
The Canadian said: “It was not the ideal start to the day!
“I left a little bit later than I probably should have and I got stuck in all the traffic coming here and it ended up taking me an hour an twenty minutes to get here this morning so I missed the first ten minutes of qualifying.
“The team did a great job to calm me down and I just went for it and somehow managed to put it on pole which goes to show just how good the car is.
“In the race I had a good start but to be honest I did not have that much speed before the stops and I was struggling quite a bit with oversteer.
“After the stops the car was just phenomenal and I was able to control the race.
“If I wanted to push hard I knew I had some time left and in the end I was just trying to limit my mistakes."
Wickens was followed home by Fortec Motorsport’s Rossi who has consolidated third place in the championship with two solid podium finishes.
Rossi started the race from sixth but pitted early for new, fresh rear tyres and leapt up to second with consistent, quick lap times.
The American said: “We took a risk this morning in qualifying with a different aero configuration and it did not pay off at all.
“However, the pit stop was absolutely phenomenal and the strategy was perfect and it allowed me to have clear air in the race.
“There was a time when we were nearly two seconds up on the leaders in lap time so that definitely made a difference and this one definitely goes to the team.”
In third place was Ricciardo, who appeared to struggle for pace for much of the afternoon.
His supreme defence of his position ahead of Vergne, not to mention ISR’s swift pit stop, ensured he retained the final place on the podium.
He said: “We probably overachieved today so I have to be quite happy with it.
“Unfortunately we did not have what we did yesterday so we were struggling quite a bit.
“In the first few laps I could hold on to the two Carlin guys but a couple of laps before we made the pit stop I was already starting to drop off.
“I knew it was going to be difficult, but the team did a really good pit stop and I was able to get ahead of Jean-Eric and from there it was a bit of a defensive race.
“I did not have the speed to keep up with Robert and Alexander but I managed to hold on and a bit of defensive driving paid off.”
With Nathanael Berthon passing Vergne after longer first stint, Wickens has increased his lead at the top of the standings to 36 points with today’s victory and with just four rounds to go is in the box set for the title.
Yet the Canadian accepts the job is not done yet.
“I’m just going to keep going with the same approach,” said Wickens.
“The championship is easier to win if you have a bigger lead so going into Paul Ricard, where I tested well in pre-season, I am confident and so a couple more wins would be great.”
Josh.
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