Formula Renault BARC Champion Richard Singleton provided one of the performances of the weekend during round three of the Formula Renault UK season at Rockingham Motor Speedway over the weekend, 21st/22nd April, the Welsh star climbing a full six places during Sunday’s first race to help maintain sixth position in the standings.
Marking Formula Renault UK’s first visit to the Northamptonshire venue since 2003, the event was one of mixed emotions for Manor’s quartet of drivers and none more so than Kris Loane who saw a superb career-best effort in qualifying count for nothing during two bitterly disappointing races for the youngster from Northern Ireland.
During Saturday’s opening qualifying session, to determine the grid for
round three, it was Peterborough’s Alexander Sims who led the way for
the North Ollerton squad with the eighth fastest time, a 10th of a
second quicker than Loane in 10th place with Singleton achieving the
12th best time and fellow Welshman Alex Morgan in 16th place.
Hoping for a clean start to make the most of his first top 10
qualifying in Formula Renault UK, Loane failed to getaway from the grid
after stalling but while he suffered awful misfortune, Sims enjoyed a
great opening to lap to climb from eighth into fifth position.
As the end of the sixth lap neared, Sims got a bit out of shape at the
chicane but on the flip-side Singleton was enjoying one of his most
competitive runs of the year and on lap 10 he produced a great piece of
opportunist driving to grab two positions at Deene Hairpin and move
into the top six.
Singleton looked particularly strong during the closing stages of the
race and put Adam Christodoulou under immense pressure, the latter just
holding on to fifth place at the line by a single 10th of a second.
Sims took the chequered flag in seventh, while Morgan finished a quiet
race in 15th place.
It later became clear Morgan’s engine was down on power, explaining the
reason for his lack of pace in qualifying and the opening race, so the
team worked hard to fit a new power-plant ahead of the second encounter.
Round four saw Singleton lead the way for Manor again, and although he
spent almost the entire race around his qualifying spot of 10th place,
a terrific final lap saw him gain two positions at the expense of
Jordan Oakes and Chris Holmes.
Sims saw a promising start from 11th on the grid come to nothing on lap
one when he was involved in contact with Will Bratt, resulting in the
Manor star slipping down the order to an eventual race finish of 12th
place.
For Loane it was another case of what might have been, the youngster
forced to pit at the end of lap one after making contact with the
perimeter wall. With the team confirming all was ok, Loane returned to
the circuit and although the stop placed him a lap down on the leaders
he did set an outstanding fourth fastest race lap, a terrific
performance.
Alex Morgan, meanwhile, improved on his earlier result to finish inside
the top 14 just a second shy of team-mate Sims. Had he not suffered
from a lack of power from his Renault F4R engine in qualifying, the
outcome could have been much different.
Looking back on a difficult race meeting, Tony Shaw said: “It’s been
one of those weekends for us. We’re happy Richard is in the top six in
the championship and Kris was a star in qualifying, it’s such a shame
for him things didn’t work out in the races as he had good pace at
Rockingham and underlined that with the fourth fastest lap in race two.
“Alexander obviously encountered some bad luck but everyone knows he’s
a very talented driver and we’re confident things will come good very
soon. Alex continues to plug away and he’s starting to learn more about
the car. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to put the bad luck behind us from
now on and start to enjoy the sort of results we deserve.”
Away from the track, Shaw has been busy in the media with an appearance
on the BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat broadcast last Monday, 16th April, where he
discussed the rise and rise in Formula One of former Manor sensation
Lewis Hamilton, the 2003 Formula Renault UK Champion.
In addition, this month’s F1 Racing magazine sees the Manor Competition
boss speak about Grand Prix sensation Kimi Raikkonen who, of course,
won the Formula Renault UK title with Manor in 2000.
Rounds five and six of the Formula Renault UK season take place two
weeks from now, 5th/6th May, at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire. Official
pre-event testing took place on Wednesday, 11th April, so competitors
will go directly into the first qualifying session of the weekend on
Saturday, 5th May.
Provisional 2007 Formula Renault UK Driver Standings (after Rds3&4)
6th Richard Singleton, 66pts; 9th Alexander Sims, 41pts, =12th Alex
Morgan, Ryan Borthwick & Sho Hanawa, 32pts, 19th Kris Loane, 17pts
Provisional 2007 Formula Renault UK ‘Graduate Cup’ Standings (after Rds3&4)
1st, Adam Christodoulou, 91pts; 2nd Riki Christodoulou, 78pts; 3rd
Richard Singleton, 66pts; 4th Alexander Sims, 41pts; 8th Kris Loane,
17pts
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