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Gillibrand In The Points Again With Seasons' Best At Oulton |
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Tuesday, 19 June 2007 |
Russell Racing’s Mark Gillibrand surprised both the team and himself at Oulton Park Island Circuit this afternoon, Saturday, 16th June, after producing a season-best result of eighth position from 17th on the grid with a determined and committed drive during the fourth round of the 2007 Formula Renault BARC season.
Wet-weather qualifying in the morning proved tricky for the Doncaster-based team’s quartet of drivers with Middle East-Russell Racing entered teenager Mohamed Al A’li emerging as the best placed at the end of the 20-minute session, a lap of 1m 31.839 seconds (88.589 mph) placing him 15th on the grid.
Manchester-based Mark would line-up 17th on the grid for the
afternoon’s 15-lap encounter at the 2.2-mile Cheshire venue with
Menasheh Idafar setting the 20th fastest time, one place ahead of
fellow Bahraini driver Essa Mohammed.
All four racers were disappointed with the outcome of the wet
qualifying session and each desperately wanted to make amends during
round four – not that anyone realised how much of a race of attrition
it would be.
Mark produced the best start of Russell Racing’s four drivers, the
24-year-old rocketing into the top 12 as the cars headed into Old Hall
Corner for the first time, but he was then forced to slot into 14th
place on the exit of the turn. This would quickly become 12th once more
though when race leaders Aaron Steele and Ollie Hancock tangled at the
hairpin.
Approaching Lodge Corner towards the end of the opening lap, Mark held
12th position with Essa having gained five places in 15th, just ahead
of Mohamed. Sadly, the latter saw what promised to be another good race
performance ruined when a spin on the run up Deer Leep on lap two
forced him into retirement.
By lap five, Mark had managed to climb into the points after taking
10th position at the expense of Louis Hamilton-Smith who, in a near
carbon-copy of Mohamed’s spin, encountered troubles on the exit of Deer
Leep.
Further retirements enabled Mark to climb into eighth position, the
highest placing of his maiden single-seater season, but he then went
one better by moving into seventh on lap nine. Unfortunately this was
short-lived and after slipping back to ninth he managed to claim eighth
place on the final lap when problems befell Frenchman Denis Autier.
As Mohamed Al A’li watched on from the sidelines, fellow Bahraini
16-year-olds Essa and Menasheh continued and drove well on their first
ever competitive appearance at Oulton Park to finish the race in 12th
and 13th positions respectively – 11th and 12th in the FR2000 Class.
Both Middle Eastern youngsters lost out during the last three laps to
Hamilton-Smith on his recovery drive, meaning Essa was just eight 10ths
of a second shy of his first ever points finish. He was also the
quickest of the Russell Racing drivers in race conditions, his fastest
lap shading Mark’s best by five 100ths of a second.
Mark’s race result, meanwhile, sees him remain in 13th position in the
FR2000 Class driver standings, tied on six points with Ahmad Al Harthy.
Reflecting on a highly unpredictable fourth round of the championship,
Russell Racing team owner Tim Russell said: “After qualifying none of
us expected to see one car in the points and two others just outside
the top 10 so we’re delighted to come away from Oulton Park with a fair
set of results.
“We were obviously assisted to a certain extent by the retirements
which took pace during the race but the drivers still had to do their
job and keep their heads. They all performed well and it was just a
shame Mohamed had his spin on the second lap, he deserved more from the
weekend.”
The next race meeting on the 2007 Formula Renault BARC calendar will be
the second double-header of the season, rounds five and six, which will
be held at Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire five weeks
from now on 21st/22nd July.
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