Renault Sport Trophy: Pieter Schothorst and Fabian Schiller are 2016 champions

The last round of the 2016 Renault Sport Trophy was held at Autodromo Fernanda Pires da Silva in Estoril. It was also the last ever event of the Renault’s one-make series, which was inaugurated last year. The drivers’ champions in the second season are Pieter Schothorst in PRO class and Fabian Schiller in AM class. Schiller is also the Endurance champion, together with Markus Palttala, a teammate in the #9 car of Team Marc VDS EG 0,0. Their team also take teams’ title for 2016 season.

The #9 Renault RS 01 of Fabian Schiller and Markus Palttala

Fabian Schiller secured his AM class title prior to season’s finale at Estoril, but it didn’t effect his motivation, so he set the best qualifying time and took the pole position for the Am class Sprint race. Before that race, he partnered Markus Palttala in the Saturday’s Endurance race. The German-Finnish pair took the second place and it was enough to clinch the championship title for Endurance races and championship title for the team.

The winners of the 70-minute Endurance race were Steijn Schothorst and Miguel Ramos in the #19 car of Equipe Verschuur. Tanart Sathienthirakul and Fran Rueda (#15 Team Marc VDS EG 0,0) completed the podium.

On Sunday morning, Schiller started from pole and took the victory in the Am class Sprint race. With his fourth victory of the season, the 19-year-old German driver confirmed his first championship title in a career. Fran Rueda and Fredrik Blomstedt (R-Ace GP) completed the podium, but also took P2 and P3 in the final classification of the Am class for 2016.

The #21 car of Pieter and Jeroen Schothorst

In the Pro class, Pieter Schothorst (Team Verschuur) secured the title after finishing second in the intermediate classification of the Endurance race. In the first part of the race, when the Pro drivers in the cars, he was on P2, behind his brother Steijn. In the second part of the race, Pieter’s father Jeroen Schothorst took over the car but retired.

In Sunday’s Pro class Sprint race, Steijn Schothorst took his second victory of the weekend. He started from pole and remained in the lead for fifteen laps. Kevin Korjus (R-ace GP) finished second, ahead of David Fumanelli (Oregon Team).