A series of spins aside, Nicolas Prost made a satisfactory debut in the World Series by Renault at Estoril last weekend, picking up his pace as the meeting went on.

_{source: crash.net}

Stepping up from the two-litre Formula Renault category, Prost knew that the difference in power would be more than he was used to, but he managed to turn the weekend into a useful learning experience.

Step by step, the son of four-time F1 world champion Alain - who was replacing the cash-strapped Alx Danielsson - adapted his driving style to suit the DAMS-run car and gained experience of a track he had not seen before pre-race testing. Then, as the various practice and qualifying sessions progressed, he engineer made some changes to the car to get a level of performance that ensured he could race with the midfield pack, eventually taking 22nd and 20th place results.

"Nicolas tested for only four hours on the first day and the gap of two seconds to the leaders was a great satisfaction for us," DAMS MD Eric Boullier commented, "However, we were really impressed by his lap times in race two, as he got to within 1.3secs of the leaders - who have been driving these cars since April.

"Nicolas had a very good approach to the weekend, running things as he would at a test, even though it was a race weekend. His feedback was perfect, he did not try to make the things go faster than they had to go and, in the end, his spirit made for a nice battle in the races. As a first experience, it could not be better!"

While Prost enjoyed his first outing in the series, DAMS team-mate Pastor Maldonado saw his fortunes take a dip after good performances in Thursday's free practice.