Bertrand Baguette
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1986 (38 years old)
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Verviers, BelgiumPosition
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Keithin Real Racing
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Super GT series
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Bertrand Baguette (born 23 February 1986) is a Belgian professional racing driver. Since 2000, he has competed in various motorsport formulae. He currently competes in Super GT for Honda on the n°17 Honda NSX-GT from Keihin Real Racing. In 2013 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class and the 2013 FIA WEC World Champion LMP2 class for drivers and teams.
Career
Karting
Aged 14, Baguette began karting in his inter-provincial championship, driving "Blue" class karts, in which he finished fifth. He then moved up to junior level for 2001, competing again in the inter-provincial championship but also competed in the national championship for the first time. He finished third in the provincial level championship, but was four places lower in the national. Baguette competed in four different Intercontinental A class championships in 2002, with a runner-up position at the provincial level, despite competing in only certain events, due to prior higher-ranked commitments in the Belgian, French or European championships. He then completed in a fourth year of karting, winning the Belgian Championship and again finished runner-up in a partial campaign in the provincial championship. He also won a scholarship to give him a drive in 1600cc Formula Renault Belgium.
Formula Renault
Baguette moved into single seater racing in 2004. He entered in the Belgian Formula Renault 1600cc with Marc Goossens Motorsport that year, as part of his scholarship win. He finished a strong third in the championship, amassing three wins and four poles during the season.
The next season, Baguette moved to both Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and French Formula Renault 2.0 championchips with Epsilon Euskadi. He finished eighth (tied on points with seventh Junior Strous) in the European championship and eleventh in the French one, including a second place at Pau. He continued in both series in 2006 with a fourth place overall in the Eurocup, including five podiums and a win at Le Mans, finishing just 11 points behind championship winner Filipe Albuquerque. He finished in eighth in the French championship, again for Epsilon Euskadi.
In 2007, Baguette entered the 3.5-litre Formula Renault 3.5 Series with the eponymous Kurt Mollekens-run KTR team, in which he took two podium finishes in his first season. He was close to win his first race in this category at Autodromo Nazionale Monza before a blown tyre. He continued in the category in 2008, driving for the Italian team Draco with which he scored his first win at Spa and ended seventh in the championship.
Baguette continued with Draco for the 2009 season. A steady start, with four podiums left Baguette tied on points with Marcos Martínez before the Silverstone meeting. During the second half of the season, Baguette raised his rhythm to put himself with an unassailable 34-point championship lead with a round to go. Baguette eventually won both races of the last meeting of the season at Ciudad del Motor de Aragón, thus winning the championship by 57 points from Fairuz Fauzy. During his 2009 campaign, Baguette scored fives wins and ten podiums.
As a prize for his championship win, he was given the opportunity to test the Renault R29 Formula One car at Jerez on 1 December 2009. He also tested the BMW Sauber F1.09 car on 3 December.
IndyCar Series
Baquette at the 2010 Honda Indy Toronto
On 22 March 2010, Conquest Racing announced that Baguette would drive their second car in the IndyCar Series, starting with the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on 11 April.
Baguette qualified 24th for the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and finished 22nd after losing several laps in the pits to replace a rear-view mirror that had fallen off.
With some strong performances throughout the season, especially on ovals, he manage a best finish of 10th at Kentucky, after qualifying 6th.
Due to a lack of budget, Baguette couldn't get a full-time seat for the 2011 IndyCar Series. However, he could find a deal with Bobby Rahal's team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to enter the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with the n°30 car. After showing an impressive pace during practice, Baguette qualified on the fifth row for his second Indy 500. During the race, he was constantly positioned within the first half of the field and on lap 189, manage a pass on Danica Patrick to take the lead of the 2011 Indianapolis 500. The n° 30 race engineer gambled on the race strategy by extending his time out on track, hoping for a late yellow flag that would certainly have given the car a good shot for the win, but this didn't happen and low on fuel, Baguette had to pit three laps before the end of the race. He finished 7th, still his best result of his career.
Formula One
Baguette tested for Renault F1 at Jerez on 1 December 2009 and for BMW Sauber two days later. Baguette was favourite to become Robert Kubica's team mate at Renault after many favourites such as Timo Glock, Heikki Kovalainen, Romain Grosjean, Takuma Sato, Nick Heidfeld, Christian Klien and Jacques Villeneuve dropped out but the seat was eventually filled by Vitaly Petrov.
FIA World Endurance Championship
Martin Plowman, Baguette's co-driver at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans
See also: 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship season
For 2013, Baguette was hired by OAK Racing to drive Morgan-Nissans in the LMP2 class on the FIA World Endurance Championship. Baguette shares the number 35 entry with co-drivers Ricardo González and Martin Plowman.
The 2013 season started at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, the OAK Racing Morgan LMP2-Nissan No. 35 finished in fourth place (twelfth overall) to get their first 10 points for the World Championship.
On the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, González, Baguette and Plowman finished in third position (for cars registered for points in the FIA World Endurance Championship), of LMP2 class (eleventh overall).
In 2013 Baguette and his co-drivers Ricardo González and Martin Plowman from OAK Racing Morgan LMP2-Nissan team, won 81st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in LMP2 class (seventh overall). Their Morgan LMP2 covered a total of 329 laps in the Circuit de la Sarthe, the race was run in very difficult weather conditions and several serious accidents bringing out a record of twelve safety car caution periods.
The 6 Hours of São Paulo were held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, on 30 August–1 September. González, Baguette and Plowman got the second place of LMP2 category, only behind Oreca 03-Nissan team (Rusinov, Martin and Conway). With this result the Belgian driver got his second podium of the year.
In the fifth round of 2013 season were the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on 20–22 September. González, Baguette and Plowman obtained the seventh place of LMP2 category (eleventh overall).
On 18–20 October, in the 6 hours of Fuji, following a two-hour delay the race was restarted once more under the safety car, lapping another eight circuits before officials stopped the race again and eventually called an end to the event. The No. 35 OAK Morgan-Nissan (Baguette, González and Plowman), started in the pole position and was declared the race winner of LMP2 class (fourth overall), in the same position they started. Due to difficult weather conditions half points will be awarded for all the teams and drivers in the event.
During the 6 Hours of Shanghai on 8–9 November, the No. 35 OAK Morgan-Nissan trio (Baguette, González and Plowman), qualified in fourth position and finished in third place (7th overall). With this new podium the French team extend their lead on 15 points to the final race of the championship.
On the last race of the season the 6 Hours of Bahrain on 29–30 November, González, Baguette and Plowman qualified in sixth place and finished in fourth position (sixth overall). Therefore, the Belgian Bertrand Baguette won the 2013 FIA WEC World Championship for drivers and teams in LMP2 class.
Super GT
In 2014, Baguette became a factory driver for Honda.
Since then, he is competing in the Super GT championship in Japan. He first drove for the Epson Nakajima Racing in the GT500 class, co-driving with Daisuke Nakajima from 2014 to 2016 and then Kosuke Matsuura during the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
During these years, the team was running a Honda NSX-GT equipped with Dunlop Tyres. Baguette scored his first podium during his first season in the series in the 5th round at Fuji Speedway.
In 2017, the pair Baguette - Mastuura drove the Epson Nakajima Racing Honda to victory during the 1000km of Suzuka, considered as the biggest race in Japan. Moreover, 2017 would be the last year this race would be part of the Super GT 500 class calendar.
For the 2019 season, Baguette was officially announced in the n°17 Keihin Real Racing Honda NSX-GT, where he will partner with Japanese driver Koudai Tsukakoshi.
Super Formula
Together with Super GT, Baguette also took part to the very high-level Super Formula championship in 2015 and in 2016, again with Nakajima Racing.
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