Williamson turns in through the wet Spa weather (Photo Credit: Vincent Curutchet/DPPI)
Lewis Williamson has endured a difficult opening to the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 season and that continued despite crossing the line first in Sunday’s race at Spa.
Williamson, who partners Alexander Rossi at Arden Caterham, qualified an excellent fourth for the second race in Belgium but was caught out by the safety car after Richie Stanaway’s huge accident.
He had been leading the race prior to the safety car period although was yet to pit and opted to stay out once the race was restarted, thus incurring the wrath of the stewards and a one minute time penalty.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing,” said Williamson, a member of the Red Bull Young Driver Development Programme.
“My first thoughts though are with Richie. It was a pretty big impact, and I hope he recovers quickly from his injuries.
“But as for the race, in those terrible conditions, we had a car good enough to finish on the podium. We were in the perfect position to achieve that, but then the Safety Car and the Red Flag wrecked our race.

“After that, I followed the instructions I received from the team and essentially we just used the remaining laps as an extensive test session.
“As for the size of the penalty, I have my own views on that and at the moment I’ll keep them to myself.”
