20.09.09 POINTS SLIP FROM TURVEYS GRASP The chance to stake a claim to second place in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship slipped from Oliver Turvey's grasp in the pitstop race at the Nurburgring today. The RSF driver - who lined up third on the grid - was only three points shy of the number two berth when the lights went out but ended the day 17 points adrift after a clutch failure sidelined him while in seventh place. The fault, which began to make its presence felt towards the end of lap 13, brought Turvey's race to a premature end three laps later. The demise leaves him with an uphill battle to recover the lost ground over the remaining two races in Spain next month. The Carlin driver had made a lacklustre start, dropping to seventh by the end of the first lap, but climbed back from 10th after his compulsory pitstop to regain track position before the gremlins struck. "I didn't get the best of starts although I did everything the same as yesterday when I got a great getaway," he said. "So maybe there was already something wrong. I don't know. "It's a shame because I had a good pitstop which enabled me to jump John Martin and pull away from my team-mate Jaime Alguersuari who was behind. "But soon afterwards I got a message from my race engineer to say I was losing time in sector two which includes the long uphill section back to the start-finish line. Clearly that's where the clutch was slipping the most which allowed Jaime to close in on me. Then it went altogether. "Mechanical problems seem to have been a bit of a bugbear for me this year which has obviously cost me valuable points and places in the championship," he added. "We were in a really close battle for second in the title race which I really wanted to get. So this afternoon has been extremely disappointing to say the least." The Belgian Bertrand Baguette wrapped up the championship with fifth place this afternoon leaving race winner Charles Pic in a strong position to clinch second place in Spain next month. The Frenchman currently lies second on 94 points. Turvey shares fifth place with the Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy on 77 points. << back to news