Hugo Mario Valente (born 17 June 1992) is a French former auto racing driver. He raced in the World Touring Car Championship for SUNRED Engineering, Campos Racing and the Lada factory team having made his debut in the series at the 2012 FIA WTCC Race of China. For 2017, he made the switch to the TCR International Series, where part way through the season he announced his retirement from motorsport. He was born in Choisy-le-Roi and is of Portuguese descent.[2]
| Hugo Mario Valente | |
|---|---|
 Valente in 2016 at the Circuit de Magny-Cours | |
| Nationality |  French Serbian[1] |
| Born | June 17, 1992 Choisy-le-Roi, France |
| World Touring Car Championship career | |
| Debut season | 2012 |
| Former teams | SUNRED Engineering, Campos Racing, Lada Sport Rosneft |
| Starts | 82 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Poles | 0 |
| Fastest laps | 2 |
| Best finish | 9th in 2015 |
| Previous series | |
| 2015, 2017 2012 2010 2009–2010 2009 2008 | TCR International Series French SEAT León Supercopa Formula Renault 2.0 UK Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 WEC Formul'Academy Euro Series |
Racing career
editFormula Renault Eurocup
editFor 2009 Valente moved into car racing and into the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series with SG Formula. He finished the season 24th in the standings with a best result of 8th at the Nürburgring. He stayed in the series for 2010, moving to the new Tech 1 Racing team alongside Arthur Pic and Aaro Vainio.[3] He scored a single podium finish, of second place, on the first weekend at Motorland Aragón and he went on to finish the season 12th on 28 points.
French SEAT León Supercopa
editAfter taking a sabbatical in 2011, Valente returned to racing for 2012 in the French SEAT León Supercopa. He led the championship going into the final round at the Circuit Paul Ricard but ultimately lost out to Jimmy Antunes in the final race.[4]
World Touring Car Championship
editSUNRED Engineering (2012)
editValente made his debut in the WTCC at the 2012 FIA WTCC Race of China, driving the SUNRED SR León 1.6T previously driven in the 2012 season by Tiago Monteiro and Hiroki Yoshimoto.[5] He qualified 23rd for the race with the only SR León on the grid. His car was found to be over-boosting later on in Q1 but his best time was set prior to the change being made so his grid slot was unaffected.[6] His best result of the weekend was fifteenth in race one, but he was later dropped to sixteenth in the classification when he was one of five drivers issued with a 30-second penalty for cutting a chicane to avoid a separate incident.[7]
Campos Racing (2013–2015)
editValente would stay the WTCC full-time in 2013 season, joining Campos Racing alongside Fernando Monje in a SEAT León WTCC.[8] The start of his season was delayed until the Race of Hungary when Campos introduced their second car.[9] He skipped the Russian and Portuguese rounds of the championship and his car was taken over by European Touring Car Cup driver Nikolay Karamyshev.[10]
Lada Sport (2016)
editValtente secured a factory drive with the Lada Sport Rosneft team for 2016. It was a tough season as Valente was unable to make the podium, unlike his teammates Gabriele Tarquini and Nick Catsburg who both took victories. Valente's best results were two fourth place finishes in Morocco and Russia. After scoring points consistently for the first half of the season, Valente would only finish once more in the points across the final four rounds including five retirements. This left him in 12th place overall, three places behind Tarquini and five behind Catsburg. At the end of the season it was announced that Lada would be pulling out of the World Touring Car Championship, leaving Valente without a drive for 2017.[11]
TCR International Series
editCampos Racing (2015)
editValente made his debut in the new for 2015, TCR International Series, at the penultimate round in Thailand. Driving with Campos Racing in their Opel Astra, Valente did not finish the first race of the weekend, although he was still classified. Valente started the second race from pole position as a result of it being a reversed grid race. However Valente would retire from this race as well.
Craft-Bamboo Racing (2017)
editHaving been unable to secure a seat in the World Touring Car Championship, Valente rejoined the TCR International Series with the Craft-Bamboo Racing team alongside TCR frontrunners and former World Touring Car rivals, Pepe Oriola and James Nash.[12] At the first round in Georgia, Valente retired from the first race of the season, but finished in ninth place in the second and scoring his first TCR points. Valente took his first podium of the season in the second round at Bahrain, with a second place finish. He followed this up with a third place in the second race of the weekend. However a non-points scoring weekend at Spa-Francorchamps dealt a blow to his championship hopes. Although Valente finished sixth in the first race at Monza, a further retirement in the second, having started the race from pole left Valente in tenth place in the championship, 67 points adrift from the championship leader at that point in time.
Shortly before the round at the Salzburgring, it was announced that Valente would retire from motorsport with immediate effect, citing the need to be closer to his family, in particular his young daughter. His seat at the team was taken over by former British Touring Car driver, Dan Lloyd.[13]
Racing record
editComplete World Touring Car Championship results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete TCR International Series results
edit(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Campos Racing | Opel Astra OPC | SEP 1 |
SEP 2 |
SHA 1 |
SHA 2 |
VAL 1 |
VAL 2 |
ALG 1 |
ALG 2 |
MNZ 1 |
MNZ 2 |
SAL 1 |
SAL 2 |
SOC 1 |
SOC 2 |
RBR 1 |
RBR 2 |
MRN 1 |
MRN 2 |
CHA 1 21† |
CHA 2 Ret |
MAC 1 |
MAC 2 |
NC | 0 |
| 2017 | Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | RIM 1 Ret |
RIM 2 9 |
BHR 1 2 |
BHR 2 3 |
SPA 1 15 |
SPA 2 Ret |
MNZ 1 6 |
MNZ 2 Ret |
SAL 1 |
SAL 2 |
HUN 1 |
HUN 2 |
OSC 1 |
OSC 2 |
CHA 1 |
CHA 2 |
ZHE 1 |
ZHE 2 |
DUB 1 |
DUB 2 |
16th | 46 |
† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
References
edit- ^ REŠENJE O PRIJEMU U DRŽAVLJANSTVO REPUBLIKE SRBIJE 52/24
- ^ "Muitas novidades mesmo antes do fim de época". JTM. 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
- ^ "A new era for Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0". Racecar. Racecar New Media Services Ltd. 13 April 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ^ "Finale au Castellet: Jimmy Antunes Champion 2012 pour une seconde!" [Finale at Le Castellet: Jimmy Antunes 2012 Champion by a second!]. SEAT León Supercopa (in French). Oreca. 28 October 2012. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ^ Hudson, Neil (25 October 2012). "Hugo Valente to race for SUNRED in Shanghai". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 27 October 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ^ Hudson, Neil (3 November 2012). "Alex Liu granted permission to start from outside 107%". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ Auger, Matt (4 November 2012). "Shanghai WTCC: Penalty Summary". Touring-Cars.net. Andrew Abbott. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ "Campos Racing confirm Monje and Valente for 2013". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
- ^ Tremayne, Sam (23 April 2013). "Hugo Valente to return to WTCC with Campos SEAT in Hungary". Autosport. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ^ "KARAMYSHEV FACES WTCC DEBUT". World Touring Car Championship. Kigema Sport Organisation. 24 May 2013. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ^ "Lada set to leave WTCC at the end of 2016". World Touring Car Championship. Motorsport.com. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "Hugo Valente joins James Nash and Pepe Oriola at Craft-Bamboo". TCR International Series. TouringCarTimes. March 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "Daniel Lloyd replaces retiring Hugo Valente in TCR switch". TCR International Series. TouringCarTimes. 8 June 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
External links
edit Media related to Hugo Valente at Wikimedia Commons
- Hugo Valente on Twitter
- Hugo Valente career summary at DriverDB.com