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.netStepping 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.