The Nürburgring has always been a favourite among the drivers, who will race this weekend in support of the FIA World Endurance Championship. On this undulating layout, finding the right compromise will be vital to join the club of winners, which includes Jack Aitken, Stoffel Vandoorne, Daniil Kvyat, Valtteri Bottas, Roberto Merhi and James Matthews !
Reshuffling the cards?
Podium finishers at the Hungaroring, Will Palmer (R-ace GP), Robert Shwartzman (R-ace GP) and Sacha Fenestraz (Josef Kaufmann Racing) come to Germany with the goal of returning to the top step.
While Will Palmer makes his Nürburgring debut, team mate Robert Shwartzman returns to the site of his first success in Formula Renault. Facing the two R-ace GP drivers, Sacha Fenestraz comes back to the circuit where he set a new benchmark time for the category in the pre-season collective tests.
The top three in the general classification have to watch out for Gabriel Aubry (Tech 1 Racing), who has won four of his last five races. The Frenchman is also familiar with the German track, as is Max Defourny (R-ace GP). The only driver in the top seven who has yet to win this season will try to repeat his victorious performance in the 2015 Formula Renault NEC.
Increasingly ambitious rookies
Winner for the fifth time among the rookies in Hungary, Max Fewtrell (Tech 1 Racing) has been overtaken by Daniel Ticktum (Arden Motorsport) in the general classification. The member of the Renault Sport Academy will be eager to answer back and claim his first podium result like his countryman and Neil Verhagen (MP Motorsport), both of whom are drivers in the Red Bull Junior Team.
Alexander Vartanyan (JD Motorsport) hopes to keep his momentum going on the circuit where he got his start in Formula Renault. The SMP Racing backed Russian has finished five consecutive times in the points and will try to score his first victory among the rookies as Yifei Ye (Josef Kaufmann Racing) did in Budapest.
Time to act
Faced against these determined newcomers, Henrique Chaves (AVF by Adrián Vallés), Alexey Korneev (Fortec Motorsports) and Julia Pankiewicz (Mark Burdett Motorsport) hope to rely on their prior Nürburgring experience to get back in the hunt, as will Alex Peroni (Fortec Motorsports) and Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport), who left Budapest empty-handed.
After finishing in the points for the first time of the season in Hungary, Renault Sport Academy driver Jarno Opmeer (MP Motorsport), Zane Goddard (Arden Motorsport), Najiy Ayyad bin Abd Razak (Fortec Motorsports) and new arrival Thomas Randle (AVF by Adrián Vallés) want to score again as soon as possible.
However, Thomas Maxwell (Tech 1 Racing), Raúl Guzmán (R-ace GP), Luis Leeds (Josef Kaufmann Racing) and Presley Martono (Mark Burdett Motorsport) share this objective after their struggles last weekend.
Axel Matus (AVF by Adrián Vallés), Ghislain Cordeel (Arden Motorsport), Thomas Neubauer (Tech 1 Racing), Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer (JD Motorsport), Sun Yue Yang (JD Motorsport) and Frank Bird (Fortec Motorsports) will try to score their first points.
And France’s Charles Milesi (R-ace GP) and Théo Coicaud (R-ace GP) make their Formula Renault Eurocup debuts as wild-card entries. Both were at Monza for the opening round of the Formula Renault NEC three weeks ago.
Timetable
Friday 14 July 2017
10:05–10:55 Collective tests 1
15:10–16:00 Collective tests 2
Saturday 15 July 2017
9:00–9:15 Qualifying 1 (Group A)
9:20–9:35 Qualifying 1 (Group B)
14:05–14:20 Qualifying 2 (Group B)
14:25–14:40 Qualifying 2 (Group A)
18:15–18:45 Race 1
Sunday 16 July 2017
9:10–9:40 Race 2