Yesterday’s race brought few to cheer about as Yelmer struggled with his strongly understeering car at the mid France racetrack. And because communication problems with his pit crew prevented him addressing that problem he got two new rear tyres on his car, which worsened the understeering. Eventually he came home at a disappointing 12^th place with a lot of making up work ahead.

Saturday’s night brought heavy rain showers and even when the cars were pushed to the grid, the track was still wet. Yelmer however has a reputation as being one of the best in the rain and he and the team gambled, putting his car on slick tyres as they did with Sébastien Buemi’s car, who was to start from 21^st. While cars flew all over the place many of them ending up in one of the gravel beds of behind a tow truck, Yelmer motored on while the track dried out rapidly, not making one single mistake. It did not take him long to take over the lead, while Buemi was on the move too. But there was one big difference. The Swiss’ car was on a full dry set-up, while Yelmer’s car had a wet track set-up. So by the end of the race, when the track had fully dried out, it was the Swiss teammate who had the upper hand. From turn 2 all the way to the Adelaide hairpin both Trust Team Arden cars were side by side but Yelmer had to give way, slotting in behind Buemi. Luca Filippi, one of the pre seasons title favorites, was the only other driver on slick tyres and that paid off too, rewarding him with the remaining podium place.

So there was a lot to cheer about when the trio had climbed on the rostrum, Yelmer and Sébastien spraying the champagne around celebrating a perfect one-two for Trust Team Arden. “Finally I have scored my first G2 Series points. This really feels really great. Of course I missed that elusive win but we all know why that was. There was no way keeping Sébastien behind as he had the proper set-up for a dry track. All I will remember is that I was the fastest man on track when there were still some really wet corners left and that I pulled out a 6.5 seconds lead after I had made my way through the traffic. This is a good starting point for the remainder of the season”, Yelmer commented.

Results race 1
1. Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) 41 laps in 59 min. 17.927s.
2. Lucas di Grassi (Campos) + 8.607s
3. Pastor Maldonado (Piquet) + 12.436s
4. Vitaly Petrov (Campos) + 17.081s
5. Andreas Zuber (Piquet) + 17.485s
12. Yelmer Buurman (Trust Team Arden) + 57.581s

Results race 2
1. Sébastien Buemi (Trust Team Arden) 28 laps in 43 min. 08.504s
2. Yelmer Buurman (Trust Team Arden) + 6.639s
3. Luca Filippi (ART) + 23.953s
4. Lucas di Grassi (Campos) + 24.479s
5. Bruno Senna (iSport) + 29.439s
6. Mike Conway (Trident) + 35.924s

 
Standings
1. Giorgio Pantano 35
2. Bruno Senna 28
3. Sébastien Buemi 20
4. Alvaro Parente 19
    Romain Grosjean 19
15. Yelmer 5