Motorsport: Hartley fires in Germany

Kiwi Brendon Hartley (second from left) on the podium after his second place at Nurburgring. Photo / Supplied

Brendon Hartley was on the podium for the second time in a fortnight after finishing a strong second to his team mate in the World Series Renault race at the Nurburgring in Germany overnight.

Following his Euro F3 victory at Brands Hatch two weeks ago, the Red Bull driver returned to the 3.5-litre Renault series this weekend to take pole position and fastest lap for the feature race.

After 25 laps Hartley was just 0.6sec behind Frenchman Charles Pic.

"It was another good result because I was the first rookie driver and it was a 1-2 finish for the Tech 1 team," he said after the race.

"Having started from pole, I would have preferred a win, but I'm happy with the result anyway. I tried putting Charles under pressure before the mandatory pit-stop, and in the rest of the race too; but he just drove a great race."

"Charles got a better start off the line and I was on the outside and slightly comprised going into the first corner. I did the sensible thing and let my team mate have the corner."

The Tech 1 drivers had agreed a strategy that whichever driver was leading would have the advantage of taking a later compulsory pitstop. Hartley was therefore brought in from his pursuit of Pic on lap eight, while Pic was given another two laps before changing his front tyres.

A yellow flag incident during this time denied Hartley the chance to close the gap while leading and Pic returned to the track with Hartley's Red Bull car still in his mirrors.

Pic then held a narrow lead to the formation finish to take out his second win of the season.

In the 'reverse top eight' grid Saturday race at the Nurburgring Hartley started eighth but was tagged from behind going into the first corner. He recovered to finish in 13th place.

From seventh on the grid in Sunday's race, Bertrand Baguette survived a poor start in which he dropped two positions, to clinch the Formula Renault 3.5 series title by virtue of a solid fifth place finish.

Comtec's Jon Lancaster had appeared set for a safe third place following a determined start. The British driver had been the biggest threat to the Tech 1 pair over the early laps, but lost ground, if not track position, by opting to delay his pitstop until lap 12.

Already smarting over the race director's decision to award him a 10s penalty in Saturday's race, Lancaster was saddled with more misery when his car ground to a halt at Turn 5 on lap 18.

Instead, it was Fairuz Fauzy who picked up third place and his second podium of the weekend. James Walker put the disappointment of retiring with overheating in race one behind him to take fourth place, within a second of the Mofaz Fortec car at the chequered flag.

Walker's points move the Jersey racer ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in the drivers' standings. The Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver benefited from the late race retirement of Carlin team-mate Oliver Turvey to take sixth.