Career
Hartley was born in a family well integrated within motorsport. His father, Bryan, had raced in many forms of motorsport, most notably Formula Atlantic. At the age of six, Hartley began his motor racing career in kart racing, following his brother, Nelson's footsteps. Six years later, the young New Zealander competed in his first full–scale race championship, competing in the Formula First category. Up against many seasoned veterans, Hartley finished the season in seventh. In 2003, the thirteen-year-old got his first major break as he won that year's New Zealand Formula Ford Festival which resulted in him getting a drive for the following year's Formula Ford championship. In a car his brother used the previous year, he started four races and won two of them.
After a season in Formula Toyota New Zealand, Hartley moved to Europe, competing in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC). The New Zealander finished 14th and 10th in the Drivers' Championship in the Eurocup and North European Cup respectively, taking a podium position at Anderstorp in the latter. His second year in Formula Renault saw him stay in the Eurocup, but move from the NEC to the Italian championship. That year saw him take three wins in the Eurocup and three podiums in the Italian championship, and took championship title in the Eurocup. In 2007 Hartley also made his Formula Three debut in the Masters of Formula 3 at Zolder event. He finished an incredibly respectable 4th. This resulted in a test with A1 Team New Zealand and the role of the rookie driver for the series.
In 2008, Hartley competed in the British Formula Three Championship for Carlin Motorsport winning five times and eventually finished the championship in third. He would have placed higher up, due to a greater amount of retirements compared to that of his team-mates Jaime Alguersuari and Oliver Turvey. They had two each, while Hartley had six. He also competed in eight races in the Formula Three Euroseries for Carlin and RC Motorsport, and achieved two finishes in the points, although he was ineligible for points. In non-championship races, Hartley finished fifth at the Masters of Formula 3, and a sensational drive at the Macau Grand Prix to finish third, after crashing in the qualification race. He started 20th on the grid and recorded the fastest race lap. He stayed with Carlin for the full F3 Euroseries in 2009, finishing eleventh despite missing two rounds due to Formula Renault 3.5 Series commitments. In that series, Hartley competed for the defending champion Tech 1 Racing team, and ended fifteenth in the championship.
He has been confirmed at Tech 1 for a full season of Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010, where he was partnered by Australian and fellow Red Bull Junior driver, Daniel Ricciardo. During the series' summer break it was announced that Hartley had been dropped from the Red Bull Junior Team. His seat was taken by British Formula Three championship leader Jean-Éric Vergne.
Despite the loss of his Red Bull backing, Hartley made his GP2 Series début at Monza in September, replacing Vladimir Arabadzhiev at the Coloni team. He scored a point in the season finale at Yas Marina to place 27th in the championship.
For 2011, Hartley returned to Formula Renault 3.5, driving alongside Jan Charouz for the Gravity–Charouz Racing team. He also returned to GP2 for the eighth round of the series at Spa-Francorchamps, replacing Kevin Mirocha and driving alongside Johnny Cecotto, Jr. in the Ocean Racing Technology team, for whom he had tested before the start of the season. He finished in fifth place in his first race with the team, and 19th in the overall championship.
Hartley began the 2012 season without a drive, but returned to Ocean for the second round of the championship in Bahrain in place of Jon Lancaster. After the two rounds in Bahrain, he was in turn replaced by Víctor Guerin. He finished 25th in the championship.
With no suitable single-seater drives available, Hartley joined the Murphy Prototypes sportscar team, which was competing in the LMP2 class in the European Le Mans Series. Following the cancellation of the second round of the ELMS championship (which would have been Hartley's début event) and the series' future in doubt, Murphy was one of several ELMS teams invited to compete as a guest entry in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, a round of the more prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship. Driving the team's Oreca 03-Nissan, Hartley finished tenth overall and third in the LMP2 class with team-mates Warren Hughes and Jody Firth. The trio teamed up again for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but retired from the race after completing 196 laps of the circuit.
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