01.08.09 PODIUM FINISH FOR TENACIOUS TURVEY Oliver Turvey - cursing a bruised hand and a sluggish, over steering car - dug deep in the second Formula Renault 3.5 race at Portimao this afternoon to finish a creditable sixth. The RSF driver, who sustained the minor hand injury in the day's earlier race, was puzzled by the debilitating lack of race pace but fought hard to earn himself five valuable championship points and a place on the rookie podium. Starting from third on the grid he was jumped first by the Frenchman Guillaume Moreau on lap two before falling into the clutches of Bertrand Baguette on lap seven, followed by Jon Lancaster and Dani Clos two laps further on. With two laps to go he moved ahead of Clos to take sixth which was good enough to lay claim to the second step on the rookies' podium. "I got another really good start which enabled me to keep position for the first lap," said Turvey. "But after that a lack of straight line speed left me really vulnerable on the long pit straight which meant the guys behind could get a good run at me and overtake pretty easily. "It could have been a lot worse though because our race pace - which has been pretty strong in previous races - was really terrible. So we've struggled but thankfully come away with some points." The race was won by Turvey's team-mate and newly-promoted Torro Rosso Formula 1 driver Jaime Alguersuari. The weekend's disappointing points haul drops Turvey down to sixth in the driver standings. << back to news