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Bratt Secures Good Haul Of Points At Thruxton |
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Monday, 07 May 2007 |
 Will Bratt gathered a healthy haul of championship points at Thruxton today, Sunday, 6th May, during the fifth and sixth rounds of the Formula Renault UK season having raced strongly in both encounters from lower than expected grid positions.
While qualifying didn’t bring quite the performance the Adderbury 19-year-old had been expecting following a promising test at Thruxton a few weeks ago, he impressed in both of the weekend’s races – particularly round five – to remain in seventh position in the driver standings.
After qualifying sixth on the grid for the first of today’s races, Will
made a good start and after gaining a place on the opening lap he then
passed Jeremy Metcalfe on the run through Allard at the start of lap
three to comfortably move into the top four and finish ‘best of the
rest’ behind a podium lock-out for reigning champion entrant Fortec.
Round six saw Will start a position further back in seventh place and
after another good getaway, the Apotex Scorpio Motorsport star started
to pressurise sixth-placed Richard Singleton and managed to find a way
past the Welshman on lap two.
Two tours of the 2.35-mile Hampshire venue later, Will began to extend
his lead over Singleton and started to catch fourth-placed Adam
Christodoulou as the race passed mid-distance. But as the gap ahead
closed-up, so did the space between Will and the pursuing Manor
Competition car of Singleton.
At the end of lap 12, Will lost fifth position into the chicane but he
wouldn’t let Singleton get away and on the 16th and final lap the pair
crossed the line just a 10th of a second apart as Will benefited from
good drive out of the chicane to just miss out on the top five.
“It’s been a fairly good weekend but I did think we would be able to
challenge for the podium here so I am a bit disappointed”, said Will,
“If we had been able to find more speed during qualifying perhaps that
would have been achievable but to come away with top four and top six
results isn’t too bad.
“We do have work to do to challenge more consistently for the podium
but I’m confident we’ll achieve that aim sooner rather than later.
Considering we got taken out of one of the Rockingham races and had a
bad result in the second race at Brands Hatch, to be seventh in the
championship isn’t too bad.”
There is now a four week break ahead of the seventh and eighth rounds
of the Formula Renault UK Championship which will take place at Croft
Circuit in North Yorkshire on 2nd/3rd June.
While regular pre-event testing will take place on Friday, 1st June,
competitors will also have the benefit of a day of exclusive Formula
Renault UK testing on Wednesday, 16th May, at the North Yorkshire
venue. An additional shared day of testing will be held on Thursday,
17th May.
Provisional 2007 Formula Renault UK Championship Standings (after Rds5&6)
1st Duncan Tappy, 181pts; 2nd Dean Smith, 172pts; 7th Will Bratt, 89pts
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