First corner spin frustrates Hartley

New Zealand driver Brendon Hartley was left frustrated after the first race of the third round of the Renault 3.5 world series in Hungary this morning (NZT).

Challenging for the lead going into the first corner at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest after the flag dropped, Hartley was forced wide by Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy and spun

Hartley had been fastest in his qualifying group earlier in the day and started the 28-lap Hungarian from third place on the grid.

He fought back to 17th at the finish and was clearly the fastest driver in the race.

" We were fast today and should have been on the podium but going into the first corner, Fairuz locked up his tyres under braking.

"He slid deep into the corner and that ran me wide onto the dirty part of the track," Hartley said.

"I wanted to brake late on the outside but then I couldn't turn into the corner; I was forced wide onto the marbles avoiding Fauzy and that caused my brakes to lock up."

Fauzy survived to win the race while Hartley's Red Bull Tech 1 car dropped to 24th place in the 26-car field.

However, the 19-year-old then began a rapid recovery. He set the fastest lap of the race on just the fourth lap, clocking one minute 34.529 seconds when the car was still heavy with fuel.

Finally running in clear air during the last two laps, Hartley put in lap times that were over a second faster than any other driver at that point of the race.

Hartley will start tomorrow morning's second race from sixth place on the grid.

Fellow-Kiwi Chris van der Drift finished 13th after being 23rd fastest in the split qualifying sessions on Saturday morning.