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Puzzling Grip Difficulties Reign-in Bratt's Challenge |
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Monday, 25 September 2006 |
Scorpio Motorsport’s Will Bratt heads into rounds 17 and 18 of the Formula Renault UK Championship tomorrow knowing he faces two of his most difficult races of the season after a troublesome pair of qualifying sessions at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit today.
The 18-year-old, from Adderbury in Oxon, arrived at the Kent venue on Friday confident of being able to challenge for two solid top six results but with grip problems plaguing him throughout both qualifying sessions today, Will has an uphill task ahead of him on the tight 1.2-mile Indy Circuit for both of Sunday’s 24-lap encounters.
Struggling with a pendulum effect of oversteer in some corners and understeer in others, the category race-winner ended the opening session of qualifying disappointed with the 10th quickest time of 45.089 seconds (95.69 mph). To add insult to injury, the lap was just a 10th of a second shy of the top six.
Focused on making a marked improvement in round 18 qualifying, the team worked hard to find an improved set-up for Will’s car prior to the second session but the grip issues mysteriously remained and resulted in the Oxon ace having an even more difficult time of things, qualifying in 12th position with a best lap of 45.559 seconds (94.71mph).
“It’s been very disappointing today”, said Will, “The car was sliding
all over the place in both sessions. It was alright on new tyres, it
wasn’t great but at least it was workable, but then it got worse.
“Compared to the way the car was handling, to start on the fifth and
sixth rows is the best we could have hoped for I think. It’ll be very
tough in the races but we’ve just to got try and make good starts to
both races, maybe pick up a couple of places there, and then try to
take as many points as we can from the weekend.”
With overtaking in ‘slicks and wings’ Formula Renault UK cars at a
premium on the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, Will knows the start to each
of tomorrow’s races will be of utmost importance – particularly as his
main rivals for the championship top six start ahead of him in both
encounters.
The potentially crucial 17th and 18th rounds of the Formula Renault UK
Championship will take place tomorrow, Sunday, 24th September. The
first race will get underway at 11.55 with round 18 set to commence at
15.05.
Both 24-lap races will be broadcast live on Motors TV. Sky Digital
subscribers can access the coverage on channel 413 while NTL cable
customers can tune-in to the action on channel 545.
2006 Formula Renault UK Championship Provisional Driver Standings (after rounds 15&16):
| Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
| 1st |
Patrick Hogan |
382 |
| 2nd |
Sebastian Hohenthal |
380 |
| 3rd |
Jeremy Metcalfe |
289 |
| = |
Sam Bird |
289 |
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| 7th |
Will Bratt |
231 |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 13 December 2006 )
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