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Will Bratt - Brands Hatch Preview |
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Thursday, 14 September 2006 |
Just four races remain in the 2006 Formula Renault UK Championship and Scorpio Motorsport’s Will Bratt has his sights firmly set on a return to the podium during the penultimate meeting of the season at Brands Hatch next weekend, 23rd/24th September.
With rounds 17 and 18 set to take place on the Kent venue’s 1.2-mile Indy Circuit a little over a week from now, the 18-year-old Adderbury sensation is confident it could turn out to be one of his strongest outings of the year having enjoyed a terrific start during the season-opener which was also at Brands Hatch in April.
After securing eighth position during round one, Will went on to enjoy a top six finish in the second of the weekend’s outings. Having since taken his maiden Formula Renault UK victory at Oulton Park in May and a further podium at Donington Park in July, the Oxon ace rightly sees no reason why he shouldn’t be a contender next weekend.
Will said: “Like all the events, we’re very much looking forward to Brands Hatch. When we were there for the first two rounds of the season we showed straight away we could be among the front-runners and so we’re confident we should be able to enjoy some good results next weekend.
“Qualifying is where we need to improve but having said that, we have had more than our fair share of technical problems this year which have hampered performance at a critical time. We’re in a position where we need some very good results to finish the year strongly and try and ensure we can end the season in the top six of the championship.”
The Apotex Pharmaceuticals-sponsored driver was certainly placed on the back-foot after a troublesome qualifying during last weekend’s World Series by Renault-supporting event at Donington Park.
But in the races, which were watched trackside by an incredible 60,000 spectators, Will underlined his superb racecraft and determination by rising from the seventh row of the grid in both encounters to achieve a brace of excellent seventh place results.
“From where we qualified at Donington our results were actually quite good and we certainly raced well”, reflected Will, “There was a problem with the car during the second half of qualifying which compromised what we were able to achieve. It was a shame as we had been on course to qualify strongly.
“I’m confident, from what we achieved at Brands Hatch earlier in the year, we should be on the pace but it’s obviously a notoriously difficult circuit for overtaking so we must have the car set-up well for qualifying and then, hopefully, we’ll achieve some good results.”
Returning to its regular slot on the British Touring Car Championship support package at Brands Hatch next weekend, Formula Renault UK will have the benefit of a pre-event test session on Friday, 22nd September.
Qualifying for the 17th round of the season will take place at 11.20 on Saturday, 23rd September, with the round 18 session expected to get underway at 16.10. Both races will then be held on Sunday, 24th September, the first beginning at 11.55 and the second timetabled to start at 15.05.
Motors TV will broadcast both events live with Sky Digital customers able to watch the action on channel 413 and NTL subscribers having the opportunity to tune-in to the coverage via channel 545 of the cable service.
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 ( Thursday, 14 December 2006 )
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