2010 Season:
5 July: Hartley fourth at Budapest Brendon Hartley challenged strongly for a podium finish in the first of two 3.5 World Series Renault races at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest at the weekend.
21 June: Hartley sidelined in France Brendon Hartley finished outside the top six for the first time this season in the fifth round of the 3.5 Renault World Series at Magny Cours in central France at the weekend.
7 June: Second and sixth for Hartley A Saturday second placing and a Sunday sixth placing meant Brendon Hartley maintained his consistent form in the 3.5 World Series Renault Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic at the weekend.
5 June: Hartley second at Brno Brendon Hartley finished a strong second in the 3.5 World Series Renault race at Brno in the Czech Republic overnight, the New Zealander delighted to be on the podium after taking his fifth ‘top six’ placing from six races.
17 May: Hartley fastest at Monaco After a storming come back drive, Brendon Hartley finished fourth in the 3.5 World Series Renault race on the streets of Monaco overnight. The 20-year-old New Zealander charged through from eighth on the grid with a stunning series of fastest lap times.
3 May: Hartley shows his speed at Spa Brendon Hartley returned to pace setting form at Spa Francorchamps for the second round of the 3.5 World Series Renault at the weekend but his efforts were frustrated by an electronics failure when he was challenging for the lead in the Saturday race; and in the wet Sunday race the Red Bull driver was delayed with a drive through penalty.
2 May: Hartley denied victory at Spa New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley was the fastest driver at the Spa Francorchamps circuit for the 3.5 World Series Renault race overnight; but his engine failed five laps from the finish.
19 April: Two sixth places for Hartley at Spanish WSR opening round New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley had to fight back after troubled qualifying sessions to recoup his two sixth placings in the opening races of the 3.5 World Series Renault Championship at the Motorland circuit in Spain at the weekend.
15 April: Hartley in pursuit of Australasia’s first Formula 1 Champions Inspired by memories of the greatest trans-Tasman partnership in motorsport history, New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley and Australian Daniel Ricciardo debut as Red Bull team mates in the opening round of the 3.5 World Series Renault Championship in Spain this weekend (April 17-18).
26 January: RED BULL F1 ANNOUNCES RESERVES FOR 2010 The subs’ bench for Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso will be an all-Australasian affair for 2010.
Click for: Archived news
Hartley fourth at Budapest
Brendon Hartley challenged strongly for a podium finish in the first of two 3.5 World Series Renault races at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest at the weekend. The New Zealander’s Red Bull car qualified third but was beaten into the first corner by Sten Pentus and spent the rest of the race shadowing the Estonian’s every move.
Hartley got alongside several times and the gap was never more than 0.5 sec. However, Pentus held on bravely to take third spot on the podium. For Sunday’s ‘pit stop’ race Hartley was disappointed to qualify only tenth and had a frustrating run, losing time after the mandatory pit stop when he rejoined the track in traffic.
In the closing stages his efforts to pass a slower car resulted in Hartley spinning and stalling his car across the track. That brought out a red flag and race was called; Hartley being credited with ninth place on the count back.
“It wasn’t a good weekend,” said Hartley who has now dropped to sixth in the WSR points with just three race weekends remaining. “On Saturday I got a good start and followed Aleshin into the first turn but I was stuck on the inside of the corner and that allowed Pentus to go round the outside of me.
“For the Sunday race we simply lost pace. Both my team mate Daniel Ricciardo and I were struggling for speed, which was confusing because we had a good set up for Sunday’s ‘high downforce’ race during the Friday testing.
“I pitted early but came out again in traffic and lost time. Then I was struggling behind Jake Rosenzweig and stayed down in ninth place. We had shown a lot of potential in testing and the Saturday race, but it just wasn’t there on Sunday,” said Hartley.
Ricciardo claimed his second Formula Renault 3.5 win of the season with a dominant drive on Saturday. From his fifth pole of the year, the reigning British Formula 3 champion finished 13.7 seconds ahead of Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin and recorded a fastest lap six tenths quicker than anyone else.
After a strong start from the front row, championship leader Aleshin threatened to take the lead at the first corner. However, apart from for another brief opportunity on a restart from a safety car period, the Russian was unable to get on terms with the Australian.
The closest scrap among the frontrunners was between Pentus and Hartley for third place. Fortec's Pentus passed Tech 1 driver Hartley on the run down to Turn 1 at the start, but was forced to spend the rest of the race defending his position.
Pentus' Fortec team-mate Jon Lancaster also attacked Hartley at the start, only to encounter trouble and drop back to 16th at the completion of the opening lap. The safety car was called out when Sergio Canamasas spun on lap four. Ricciardo lost a 3.1s lead as a result, and allowed Aleshin a send overtaking attempt.
In Sunday’s race Sten Pentus scored his second victory of the Renault 3.5 season to move into third place in the drivers' standings. The polesitter was in control throughout, only losing the lead during the mandatory pitstop sequence.
The race was red-flagged on lap 26 when Hartley's Tech 1 machine stopped in a dangerous position at Turn 3. The result was declared after 24 laps, with Pentus holding a 6.2-second winning margin over front row starter Albert Costa.
Pentus had held a 3.5s lead over Costa when the Spaniard made an early pit call on lap five. Although the gap was reduced to just over a second when Pentus emerged from his own stop on lap eight, the Estonian was once more able to pull away.
"It was easier out in front today rather than following someone," said Pentus. "Yesterday, I saw that Hartley was so much quicker than me and I wanted to find out why. We analysed the data and found it. I've had a difficult couple of months, and it has taken time for everything to stand up again."
Mikhail Aleshin fought off a determined challenge from Daniel Zampieri to seal third place. The Carlin driver has extended his lead in the championship to 11 points over race one winner Daniel Ricciardo, who could only manage sixth place for Tech 1 in the second race.
From fourth on the grid, Greg Mansell negotiated the first two corners in attacking fashion to rise to third. The Comtec man was chased by Aleshin and Zampieri in the early laps, before opting for a late pitstop strategy. Aleshin jumped Mansell during the pitstop phase, while Zampieri took fourth after finding an opening on lap 20. Fifth place equals Mansell's highest finish of the season.
Formula Renault 3.5 now has a nine week summer break before the next round at Hockenheim on September 4-5.
Hungaroring – Race 1 Saturday
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Daniel Ricciardo Tech 1 47m14.151s
2. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin + 13.758s
3. Sten Pentus Fortec + 29.710s
4. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 + 31.154s
5. Nelson Panciatici Junior Lotus + 38.845s
6. Albert Costa Epsilon + 39.345s
7. Jan Charouz P1 + 39.796s
8. Daniel Zampieri Pons + 1m00.963s
9. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin + 1m02.240s
10. Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon + 1m02.819s
11. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP + 1m03.345s
12. Walter Grubmuller P1 + 1m05.581s
13. Victor Garcia KMP + 1m06.716s
14. Bruno Mendez FHV + 1m25.715s
Retirements:
Greg Mansell Comtec 22 laps
Jon Lancaster Fortec 20 laps
Stefano Coletti Comtec 17 laps
Daniil Move Junior Lotus 13 laps
Sergio Canamasas FHV 3 laps
Nathanael Berthon Draco 1 lap
Federico Leo Pons 0 laps
Julian Leal Draco 0 laps
Hungaroring – Race 2 Sunday
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Sten Pentus Fortec 39m00.851s
2. Albert Costa Epsilon + 6.292s
3. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin + 8.921s
4. Daniel Zampieri Pons + 9.489s
5. Greg Mansell Comtec + 11.233s
6. Daniel Ricciardo Tech 1 + 13.990s
7. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP + 14.523s
8. Jake Rosenzweig Carlin + 29.197s
9. Brendon Hartley Tech 1 + 29.539s
10. Stefano Coletti Comtec + 35.143s
11. Walter Grubmuller P1 + 36.888s
12. Nelson Panciatici Junior Lotus + 39.396s
13. Nathanael Berthon Draco + 40.189s
14. Daniil Move Junior Lotus + 40.838s
15. Keisuke Kunimoto Epsilon + 41.344s
16. Julian Leal Draco + 42.180s
17. Federico Leo Pons + 43.381s
18. Victor Garcia KMP + 43.834s
19. Bruno Mendez FHV + 1m04.608s
20. Sergio Canamasas FHV + 1m05.364s
21. Jan Charouz P1 + 1m12.357s
22. Jon Lancaster Fortec + 3 laps
| 
