6
The Monaco-born racer, who's at his first steps in
car racing, left his mark at Mugello by cruising to
two second places that enable him to look forward
to the next round at Jerez with confidence. He's
aiming to defeat Matevos Isakyaan to grab the run-
ner-up honours. But while some say that the second
classified is the first loser, in all the racing environ-
ments the real circumstances must be analyzed
prior to make any assessment. And in this case it's
very, very hard to consider Charles Leclerc a loser.
He's an absolute rookie. Last year, he was still
racing go-karts and in 2014 he lined-up for his first
season in single-seaters, opting for one of the most
difficult championship in international racing. The
Fortec driver grew up a lot during the season, and
after winning twice at Monza, he got two great runs
at Mugello. Maybe he was expecting more, but get-
ting two podium finishes on a complex track like the
one in Tuscany means having extreme skills. On the
podium, Charles seemed disappointed as he suffe-
red from a lack of straightline speed on his car. A
pity, because the potential was there but, if he'll
keep running this way, he will be able to get more
and more satisfactions as his career will go on. The
two second place finishes confirmed he's the num-
ber one contender behind de Vries.
The skilled
Fittipaldi Jr
Race 1 at Mugello highlighted the return of wild-
card Bruno Bonifacio, who brought the Prema
Powerteam Tatuus car to third place. But another
Brazilian impressed. At his third run in ALPS, Pietro
Fittipaldi showed great skills as he kept improving
his chemistry with the series in fourth. Fifth place
went to George Russell in front of Matevos Isakya-
an, who lost positions due to a slight mistakes. The
Italian camp ran into hard fortunes at home. Dario
Capitanio was the best of his fellow countrymen in
15th, while Alessio Rovera rounded out the top-20
after some early technical problems.
Isaakyan
fights back
The second race of theweekend turnedout tobepretty
uneventful. De Vries and Leclerc repeated the results
scored the day before while Matevos Isakyaan fougth
back with a podium finish that had seemed possible
for him since the start of the weekend. Bruno Bonifacio
ended up close to him in fourth, completing a positive
for his next appearance in the Eurocup. The samewent
for DennisOlsen, who rounded out the top-5 fromEgor
Orudzhev and George Russell. The American seemed
to have lost the edge showed in the earlier rounds. The
Formula Renault ALPS is now moving to Spain. The
Jerez de la Frontera circuit will host the closing round
of a season that once again demonstrated the high
level of the championship. A fact that is confirmed by
the participation of all the great teams, which line-up
their best prospect through the junior programs. De
Vries is fromMcLaren, while the previous champ Anto-
nio Fuoco is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and
Daniil Kvyat is already racing with Red Bull's Toro Ros-
so squad. An excellent roll of honour.
George Russell
Leclerc, Isaakyan and de Vries
Leclerc
keeps
impressing
The Monaco-born racer, who's at his first steps in car racing, left his mark at Mugello by
cruising to two second places that enable him to look forward to the next round at Jerez with
confidence. He's now aiming to defeat Matevos Isakyaan to grab the runner-up honours
