The long-awaited first round of the World Series 2009 finally arrived this weekend and at the Circuit de Catalunya One of the drivers was the Repsol representative, Jaime Alguersuari, one of the stars of the event. Jaime, who set the fastest time in yesterday`s second free session – and second in the third free session – began the morning by setting the third best time in the official practice, something that gave him a chance to participate in his first Superpole.
In the Superpole Alguersuari set the fourth best time, and looked relaxed at the wheel of his car, in spite of his lack of experience in this category. The regulations state that the first eight classified in practice are located in reverse order on the starting grid for the first race that is held on a Saturday. And so Alguersuari started his first race in the World Series in fifth position.
At 13:48 the first round of the World Series 2009 started at the Circuit de Catalunya. For the Repsol driver Jaime Alguersuari the first lap was very intense. After getting off to a bad start, Jaime caused the rear wheels to spin too much on the grid, he reached the end of the straight in sixth place, losing a position with respect to the grid. But before he completed the first lap Alguersuari had already gained back his fifth position, and a little later moved up to fourth. Ahead of him Marcos Martínez was alone at the front for the whole race until he was given the chequered flag.
Alguersuari kept up with the pace on the first few laps and was just behind his compatriot Vallés, but at the same time he was under constant attack from his Carlin Motorsport teammate – Olivier Turvey who tried to overtake him at several points on the circuit. In the end, Turvey got past Alguersuari on lap 7 on the fourth corner of the track, the British driver overtook when the Spaniard made a small mistake with his driving line. During the rest of the race the positions of the drivers in the classification did not change, and so Jaime Alguersuari got a deserved fifth place finish in his first ever race and his first ever experience in the World Series.
Tomorrow, Sunday, Jaime Alguersuari will take part in the second race of the weekend, and will start in fourth position on the grid, the position he won in today`s Superpole.
Jaime Alguersuari, 5th at 5.532 secs. >> Audio
“I reckon this was a positive race, from the getting experience point of view. I learnt a lot thanks to what happened in the race, the longest one of my life. I had a few different types of situations to contend with during the race, with rivals like [Oliver] Turvey & [James] Walter, and we knew how to deal with them. In the end I was fifth, fulfilling one of my objectives for this weekend. Tomorrow I will start in fourth position, and I will try to finish on the podium. Today`s race has helped us to prepare for what might happen tomorrow.”
