Talk about making a good first impression.

Canadian Robert Wickens’ debut weekend in the newly revived Formula Two Series in Valencia, Spain, could not have gone any better: He started on the pole in both races and then led every lap on his way to a pair of dominant victories.

“I’ve had some good accomplishments in the past, but this is the best way I’ve ever started a championship,” Wickens said after scoring his second victory Sunday.

“It was just fantastic. I can’t believe the weekend and the year started so well. I could not have pictured it going any better.”

The wins put Wickens, 20, firmly in the driver’s seat in the title standings with a maximum 20 points, nine better than reigning Italian Formula 3 champion Mirko Bortolotti. Former GP2 driver Carlos Iaconelli is third with nine points.

The F2 calendar features a two race per weekend schedule with eight stops around Europe. The next two rounds go in Brno, Czech Republic, June 20-21.

Closer to home, Wickens also scored a double win in Inside Track magazine’s readers’ choice awards, with fans voting him both the Overall Canadian Racer of the Year and Canadian Road Racer of the Year for 2008.

The accolades are probably based on his performance in the A1GP Series with Team Canada in season three, where Wickens scored one victory from five podium finishes in seven starts.

His other racing efforts in 2008 weren’t as memorable, after he moved to Europe to try his hand in the highly competitive open-wheel world across the Atlantic.

In his first season away from home, Wickens found limited success in both the World Series by Renault and the Formula 3 Euro Series, although he picked up a win in both before the end of 2008.

The move to Europe came after he took the 2006 Formula BMW USA championship and then spent one season in the Atlantic Championship, winning the 2007 rookie of the year crown.

A Red Bull Junior driver since 2006, the energy drink company placed Wickens in F2 for 2009, where the cars are strictly monitored to ensure every driver has equal equipment. Designed as a low-cost development series, the price tag to run a full season in F2’s Williams F1-designed chassis powered by a 400-horsepower 1.8-litre Audi engine is about $345,000.

The 25 drivers signed up for the 2009 season also have a boost button on the steering wheel that gives drivers an extra 50 horsepower in short bursts.

The series seemed to have done a good job keeping things even, as the top 15 qualifiers for Round 1 were within one second of Wickens’ pole time. Qualifying for Race 2 returned a similar result, with the top 16 achieving times less than one second off Wickens’ pace-setting lap.

Wickens is also racing in the Euro Series again this year, although his first weekend in F3 didn’t go as well as his maiden F2 appearance. He went pointless in the two races on F3’s season-opening weekend, finishing 11th in both rounds three weeks ago at the Hockenheim track, home of F1’s German Grand Prix.

Wickens skipped the second F3 weekend at the EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Germany, to race in Valencia.

And it turned out to be an excellent decision, although the early going wasn’t easy for Wickens, who was off the pace when the cars hit the track in Friday practice.

“We struggled a little bit in practice, but we never lost our cool and didn’t panic with the setup, and everything fell into place nicely,” he said.

In the first F2 race Saturday, Wickens got away quickly and built a five-second cushion before second-place Andy Soucek lost power and brought out the safety car with seven laps left in the 24-lap race when he was stranded on track.

Although Wickens was able to keep Iaconelli behind on the restart, he wasn’t pleased with losing his hard-fought advantage.

“To be perfectly honest, I would have preferred the safety car to not come out, because I had quite a healthy gap and was happy where I was,” he said.

“Andy was able to put pressure on me for the opening laps, so I had to push quite hard. Once I was able to build a gap, I was just really focusing on consistency and keeping the car in one piece and trying to nurse it to the finish.”

In the second race, the Canadian led all 17 laps. With rain drizzling the track for most of the race, Wickens excelled in the changing conditions and easily drove away from the field and crossed the line six seconds ahead of his nearest challenger.

The almost-perfect weekend – he failed to set the fastest lap in Race 2 – helps Wickens go to the next race weekend riding a high.

“It’s a big boost in confidence,” he said. “I mean everyone goes into the first race wanting to win, so for me to do it is great and it’s a great way to start the championship.”

[source: theglobeandmail.com]