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Manor Motorsport's Franck Mailleux (Hull) won his first Formula Renault UK race with victory in round one of the 2006 Formula Renault UK with Michelin Winter Championship. The Frenchman took the lead at turn one as pole-sitter Niall Breen (Dundalk, Co Louth) bogged down at the start and was never seriously threatened as he won by 1.461s. Richard Keen (Amersham, Bucks) was second on his return to Formula Renault UK racing with Fortec Motorsport ahead of team-mate Breen who recovered to finish third.

Breen, who switches to Formula Renault UK as reigning Formula BMW UK champion, made a poor start on debut allowing Mailleux to assume the lead at Paddock Hill Bend. Keen made a good start from third and went around the outside of Breen to take second, while RS Racing's Richard Singleton (Conway, Wales), the reigning Formula Renault BARC champion, gained two places to lie fourth ahead of Eurotek Motorsport's Jordan Oakes (Hopton, Norfolk) and Manor's newcomer Alexander Sims (Peterborough).

International Class drivers Martin Ragginger (Wals, Austria), Michael Rossi (Lyon, France) and Anton Nebylitskiy (Moscow, Russia) all made up places on lap one, however they are ineligible to score points in the Championship. Meanwhile, a spin for Eurotek's Emma Selway (Tring, Herts) left her at the rear of the field, which was reduced to 27 due to Position 1 Racing's Armaan Ebrahim (Woking, Surrey) not taking the start.

Mailleux opened a gap of one second over Keen on the opening lap and he in turn had a comfortable lead over third-placed Breen. American Carl Skerlong (Northampton), the reigning Formula TR Pro Champion, was pressurising AKA Lemac's Adriano Buzaid (Oxford) for seventh place, while Borthwick Motorsport's Ryan Borthwick (Hawick, Scotland) was running an impressive 10^th in just his third Formula Renault UK race.

On lap five, AKA Lemac's Jon Lancaster (Calverley, Leeds) got the better of his fellow karting graduate Riki Christodoulou (Sutton Coldfield) to seize 11^th place. Lap six saw the second retirement of the race as Sims ran slightly wide at Paddock Hill Bend before spinning off on the run up to Druids hairpin. Russell Racing's Ben Mason (Maud, Aberdeenshire) had retired on lap four after hitting the kerb heavily at Surtees. Meanwhile, Mailleux' lead at the head of the field had extended to almost 1.5s although Breen was now closing on Keen having set the fastest lap of the race on lap four at 44.700s (96.56mph).

Coles Racing's Kris Loane (Kesh, Co Fermanagh) took advantage of an error by Manor's International Class driver Jeremy Braun (Washington, USA) who ran wide on the exit of Graham Hill Bend, Loane claiming 18^th place. That became 17^th on the following lap as Jon Lancaster spun out of 10^th at Druids, rejoining at the rear of the field, one lap down.

With four laps left, Breen dropped back by half a second from Keen, while Oakes also fell back from Singleton after running wide at Graham Hill Bend. Emma Selway moved into the final points position by passing SL Formula Racing's Pierre Selander (Mjölby, Sweden).

Mailleux safely negotiated the final three laps, maintaining his comfortable lead over Keen to claim his first victory in the UK. Commenting on the win, the Frenchman said: "My start was perfect and I just drove straight past Niall. I got round Paddock Hill Bend and looked in my mirrors and couldn't believe how big a gap there was. I drove within my limit and could have pushed if I needed to but luckily I didn't."

Second-placed Keen said: "It was good to get past Niall at the start but I felt he was slightly quicker than me during the race so I had to make sure I drove safely to keep second place. I seemed to lack a bit of power on the straights and that made it difficult but I could do enough to stay ahead until the finish."

After his debut Formula Renault race, Breen commented: "It's a shame not to win from pole position but it was my first race start in the car and I think I need to practise starting a bit more! Once I was into the race I found my rhythm quite quickly but there just wasn't a chance to overtake to I had to settle for third. I did drop back to try to set the fastest lap though and that worked so I was pleased to get the extra two points."

Drivers Championship standings after Round 1 - provisional