Hampshire single-seater ace Jeremy Metcalfe is this evening ruing a costly
error during today’s seventh round of the 2007 Formula Renault UK Championship
at Croft Circuit which resulted in the AKA Cobra driver recording his first
non-finish of the season.
After emerging from a two-day official test session at the North Yorkshire
venue two weeks ago with the fastest time of all, the 19-year-old from Fleet had
high expectations of being able to challenge for his second win of the current
campaign this weekend but a tricky qualifying session this morning certainly
didn’t do Jeremy any favours.
Unable to string together lap times he was happy with, the BRDC Rising Star
ended the sole 20-minute session with the eighth fastest qualifying time for
round seven and the seventh best lap for round eight.
Getting away well from row four at the beginning of this afternoon’s
encounter, Jeremy quickly passed Richard Singleton and then by the end of lap
one he had also made his way past sixth-placed Alexander Sims to cap an
excellent opening tour.
Running in a strong sixth position, Jeremy looked assured a minimum of 18
points but at the chicane on lap five things went horribly wrong for the
Loughborough University student when he glanced the kerbs too hard. The result
saw his left-front suspension break meaning he was forced to retire on the
spot.
Dealing a bitter blow to his championship bid, Jeremy’s first non-finish of
the season means he is now joint-fifth in the driver standings on 121 points
with round seven race winner Will Bratt.
“I’m bitterly disappointed but we need to look forward to tomorrow now and
hope we can salvage some decent points from the weekend”, said the despondent
teenager, “Things were going quite well, I’d already made up two places on the
first lap, but I just caught the kerb at the chicane too hard on lap five and
that was it.
“We were very strong in the test two weeks ago and had a lot of confidence
coming into this weekend but qualifying just didn’t work out. Hopefully if I can
make another good start tomorrow we should have the pace to challenge for a top
five result.”
The second of this weekend’s races, round eight, is scheduled to take place
at 14.00 tomorrow, Sunday, 3rd June. Digital satellite and cable subscription
broadcaster Setanta Sports 1 will screen the 15-lap race live.
Provisional 2007 Formula Renault UK Championship Standings (after
Rd7)
1st Duncan Tappy, 208pts; 2nd Dean Smith, 198pts;
=5th Jeremy Metcalfe & Will Bratt,
121pts
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