Renault Sport Trophy makes its big debut at Spa

Each car will be confined to two drivers, one “Elite” and one “Prestige”. Each will have a qualifying session for the sprint races. The starting grid for the endurance race will be determined by the order of the “Prestige” drivers at the end of their session, as will also be the case at Silverstone and Le Mans. They will have to start the race and will score points in their category according to the intermediate classification before the driver changes. The “Elite” competitors will inherit this scenario at the Hungaroring, Nürburgring and at Jerez.

The first collective tests at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana RicardoTormo gave an indication of who should contend for top honours. The Zele Racing team posted the best time in “Elite” thanks to Italy’s Vittorio Ghirelli, who will team up with Philippe Bourgois. The second car of the Austrian squad will be entrusted to former Eurocup Mégane Trophy title contender Bas Schothorst and Frenchman Philippe Haezebrouck.

Opposite him, the Dutchman will find some familiar faces, most notably at Equipe Verschuur. Coming from the Formula Renault 2.0, his cousin Steijn has shown to be fast and counts on optimizing his relationship with his father, Jeroen. The team’s second Renault Sport R.S. 01 will be driven by the Portuguese duo of Miguel Ramos and Antonio Coimbra.

Led by Jerry Canevisio and Piergiogio Testa, Oregon Team will also make its return to the World Series by Renault with three cars and big ambitions. 2012 FIA F2 champion, Luciano Bacheta will partner with past winner in the Eurocup Mégane Trophy, Niccoló Nalio.

Very consistent in the tests, David Fumanelli and Dario Capitanio figure among the contenders, as does the Brazilian tandem of Alan Hellmeister and Adalberto Baptista. Based in Holland, V8 Racing will also line-up three Nismo V6 turbo engine powered cars. 2013 Formula Renault 1.6 NEC Junior champion, Roy Geerts will partner with Max Braams, who has plenty of past experience in the Renault Sport Technologies’ sedan series’. Former F1 test driver Nicky Pastorelli will team with Diederik Sijthoff while the third car will be in the hands of former Formula Renault 3.5 Series racer Federico Leo and Sweden’s and Italy’s Stefano Constantini.

Competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, the ART Junior Team will entrust their cars to two pairs worth following: Andrea Pizzitola and Richard Gonda, who have Formula Renault 2.0 experience, as well as Indy Dontje and Toni Forné, who was a force in the Eurocup Mégane Trophy. Monlau Competicion enters an all Belgian duo that will race on their home circuit: Wolfgang Reip, coming from the Nissan GT Academy, who will partner the only female driver in the field, Sarah Bovy.