Sergio Hernández von Rekowski (born 6 December 1983, Xàbia) is a Spanish

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

, best known for having competed in the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

. He won the WTCC Independents' Trophy in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Career

Early years

Hernández's career started in

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...

in 1998, lasting until 2001 when he moved up to

formula racing Formula racing, also known as open-wheel racing in North America, is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. A "formula", first devised by FIA for its post–World War II single-seater races, is a set of regulations for ...

with Portuguese Formula BMW and Spanish Formula Toyota. In 2002 he debuted in

Spanish Formula Three The Euroformula Open Championship (formerly the Spanish Formula Three Championship, European F3 Open Championship) is a junior formula racing series based in Spain. It was one of six national and international Formula Three championships in Europe ...

, driving for the Azteca team, where he would stay for 2003. In 2003 he also drove for Azteca in

British Formula 3 The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single sea ...

, driving some races. He also drove part of the World Series Light season. He remained in Spanish F3 for 2004, only moving to the Campos team. He got a taste of

World Series by Nissan The World Series Formula V8 3.5, formerly the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series from 2005 to 2015 and the Formula V8 3.5 in 2016 and 2017, was a motor racing series promoted by RPM Racing (1998–2004) and R ...

, driving part of the season for the Saulnier team.

GP2 Series

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

he drove in the

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecc ...

, partnered with Juan Cruz Álvarez, although Campos struggled throughout the season. He moved to

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

for

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, partnering

Lucas di Grassi Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984) is a Brazilian racing driver, who competes in Formula E for Lola Yamaha ABT. In formula racing, di Grassi competed in Formula One in , and won the 2016–17 Formula E Championship with Abt. In endu ...

, but results were even more sparse. During the GP2 season finale at

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, he drove for the

Trident Racing Trident Motorsport (formerly known as Trident Racing) is a motor racing team that competes in Open-wheel car, single-seater formula racing. It was founded in 2006 in order to compete in the GP2 Series, GP2 championship, which was Europe's second h ...

team, replacing Ricardo Risatti who had himself replaced the injured

Pastor Maldonado Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (; born 9 March 1985) is a Venezuelan former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix with Williams. After winning the GP2 Series in 2010 with Rapax, Maldona ...

for three race meetings.

World Touring Car Championship

Proteam Motorsport (2007–2008; 2010)

Hernández switched to touring cars in 2007, racing a

BMW 320si The fifth generation of the BMW 3 Series range of compact executive cars is designated under the model codes E90 (saloon), E91 (estate, marketed as 'Touring'), E92 (coupé) and E93 (convertible). The model was introduced in December 2004, and p ...

for Proteam Motorsport in the

2007 World Touring Car Championship season The 2007 World Touring Car Championship season was the 4th season of FIA World Touring Car Championship motor racing. The championship, which commenced on 11 March and ended on 18 November, after twenty-two races, was open to Super 2000 Cars, Die ...

. He finished 20th in the drivers' standings that season after participating in nine of the eleven rounds. He continued to race for Proteam in

alongside

Stefano D'Aste Stefano D'Aste (born 26 February 1974 in Genoa) is an Italian auto racing driver. His early racing career included competing on motorcycles and the Monza International Rally. He has competed in the World Touring Car Championship between 2004 (wh ...

. He took his first outright podium finish at the 2008 FIA WTCC Race of Japan, finishing third behind

Tom Coronel Tom Romeo Coronel (born 5 April 1972) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Tom's twin brother Tim Coronel, Tim is also a racer, just like their father Tom Coronel Sr. His most important results are winning the Masters of Formula 3, Marlboro Mast ...

and

Augusto Farfus Augusto Celestino Farfus dos Santos Jr. (born 3 September 1983) is a Brazilian professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He lives in Monaco. Early years Born in Curitiba, Farfus first tasted racing in minibike races and wo ...

in the drying conditions of race one. That year he won the Independents' Trophy for the first time. He rejoined Proteam in

after BMW reduced their involvement in the series.

BMW Team Italy–Spain (2009)

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

he joined the works BMW Team Italy-Spain, replacing

Félix Porteiro Félix Porteiro Pérez (born 26 August 1983 in Castellón, Spain) is a Spanish racing driver. He competed in GP2 Series in 2006, his best finish was 6th (was second on the road at Silverstone, but a steering rack irregularity caused him to be dis ...

as teammate to

Alessandro Zanardi Alessandro "Alex" Zanardi (; born 23 October 1966) is an Italian professional racing driver and paracyclist. He won the CART championship in 1997 and 1998, and took 15 wins in the series. He also raced in Formula One from 1991 to 1994 and again ...

. He failed to get through to Q2 for the Race of Brazil but started ahead of his teammate. He finished in the points in his first race as a works driver. While letting his teammate pass during qualifying for the Race of Morocco, Hernández clashed with fellow

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

driver

Andy Priaulx Andrew Graham Priaulx, Order of the British Empire, MBE ( born 7 August 1974) is a British people, British racing driver from Guernsey. In 2019 he raced for Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK in the FIA World Endurance Championship, ...

and finished the session nineteenth. Hernández retired from race two on the opening lap and his stranded car brought out the safety car. After qualifying for the Race of France, he was one of seven drivers who had their times from Q2 deleted for exceeding the engine rev limit on theirs cars. He finished fifth in race one but a collision with Porteiro on the first lap put Hernández out of the race and his BMW 320si caught fire, Porteiro was issued with a drive–through penalty for his involvement. He started on pole position for the reversed grid race at the Race of Spain but dropped down to sixth by the end of the race. Hernández took his first overall WTCC victory in race two of the Race of the Czech Republic, having started on the second row and passed pole sitter

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 wit ...

on the third lap. Race one of the Race of Portugal saw Hernandez and the

Lada LadaAccording to various sources, the name Lada is derived from a Russian word for Viking longships (). (, , marketed as LADAFrom 2004 onwards Lada is marketed worldwide, including in Russia, using the all-capitals brand name written in Latin sc ...

of Jaap van Lagen, who started 17th and 18th respectively tangle after the

rolling start A rolling start is one of two modes of initiating or restarting an auto race; the other mode is the standing start. In a rolling start, the cars are ordered on the track and are led on a certain number of laps (parade or caution laps) at a prede ...

, pitching Hernandez in the concrete barrier. He was subsequently taken to hospital for checks on his ankle and was unable to start race two. Contact from

SEAT Sport Cupra Racing, formerly known as SEAT Sport, is the high-performance motorsport subsidiary of the Spanish automobile manufacturer SEAT, founded in 1985, succeeding the "SEAT Special Vehicles department" which had been formed in 1971 with the missi ...

driver Jordi Gené during race two of the Race of Italy spun Hernández and dropped him down the order and he eventually finished eleventh. He finished the season eleventh in the drivers' championship as the fourth best BMW factory driver and one place ahead of his teammate. In December 2009, BMW announced it was to reduce its involvement in the WTCC from five cars to two. ROAL Motorsport would no longer be involved with the German manufacturer, leaving Hernández to find a seat himself for 2010.

Racing record

Complete GP2 Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Superstars Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Sergio Hernández official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Sergio 1983 births Living people People from Xàbia Spanish racing drivers Sportspeople from the Province of Alicante GP2 Series drivers World Touring Car Championship drivers Euroformula Open Championship drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Superstars Series drivers Campos Racing drivers Durango (racing team) drivers Trident Racing drivers BMW M drivers RC Motorsport drivers OAK Racing drivers