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Formula Renault UK star Will Bratt made a superb return to the cockpit of his Scorpio Motorsport-run car at Croft Circuit yesterday, outpacing the Winter Championship regulars during testing at the North Yorkshire venue.
Although not taking part in this season’s winter series, the 18-year-old did seize the opportunity to join Scorpio for the test session ahead of Saturday’s third and fourth rounds of the championship and served a strong reminder of his pace by topping the times in his Apotex Pharmaceuticals-backed car.
Will’s fastest time of the day, using unofficial timing, saw him lap the challenging 2.1-mile circuit in 1 m 17.4 seconds, approximately three 10ths of a second clear of the 2006 Formula Renault UK Winter Championship front-runners.
The Adderbury teenager, who finished the main Formula Renault UK Championship eighth overall in the standings with one race victory at Oulton Park to his credit, was joined in the Scorpio ranks by 2005 Formula Ford Festival winner Duncan Tappy and the pair helped the Loughborough team lock-out the top two places on the timesheets.
“It was great to end the test fastest overall”, commented Will, “We made some steps forward with our set-up at Silverstone during the last two rounds of the season and the team has continued to make good progress.
“Our pace in the Croft test confirms the changes are the right way forward, to be the fastest driver on the day is very pleasing. Although we only spent about an hour and a half on track in total we made valuable use of the time and I think we proved our position as genuine front-runners in Formula Renault UK.”
Croft, of course, saw Will produce one of his best performances of the main 2006 season when, during round 10, he made an outstanding start and came from sixth on the grid to pass both Sam Bird and Richard Keen within just two laps en route to a deserved fourth place.
While the majority of drivers at yesterday’s test remain in North Yorkshire today ahead of Saturday’s winter series finale at Croft, Adderbury-based Will has returned to Oxford to continue his studies at the University’s Lincoln College.
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