F1’s newest and youngest driver Jaime Alguersuari has headed back to the Formula Renault 3.5 series in Portimao with a bang, claiming pole position 0.5 seconds ahead of his team-mate Oliver Turvey for the second race of the weekend.
Alguersuari who made his F1 debut last week after taking over the Toro Rosso drive from Sébastien Bourdais was pleased with his pole position saying that qualifying was the area they needed to work on.
He went on to talk about heading back to FR3.5 this weekend saying: “It is actually quite difficult for the first ten laps coming back to World Series as you familiarise yourself again. It is not just the brakes and power, it is the things like the seating position and mirrors, but a good driver should be able to adapt.”
“The circuit is very bumpy and the track conditions have changed a lot since this morning, where we weren’t able to show our true performance because of an engine problem. It was very slippery this afternoon, but I’m happy with our margin, I think it is quite impressive. Maybe some other drivers couldn’t put a lap together, I am sure Ollie could have done a faster time.” he added.
In the first race Alguersuari started from 7th on the reversed grid, battling his way through the 30 minute (+ 1 Lap) race to take a podium place behind John Lancaster, who won his first FR3.5 race and series leader Bertrand Baguette.