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Sims Puts Manor On Top During Thruxton Test |
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Friday, 10 August 2007 |
Formula Renault UK race winner Alexander Sims produced a scintillating performance during official testing at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire yesterday, Wednesday, 8th August, to emerge as the fastest of all 18 drivers on track – in doing so, he also helped prove Manor Competition is squarely in the battle for more race victories this year.
Peterborough-based Sims, who is currently eighth overall in the championship table with six races remaining, lapped with a best time of 1m 10.342 seconds (120.57mph) during the afternoon to not only head the second session by more than a 10th of a second, but to also shade the previous best of the day set by Dean Smith in the morning.
The first Formula Renault UK test session saw Sims post the seventh
quickest time with a lap of 1m 10.830 seconds (119.72mph) while Manor
team-mates Kris Loane and Alex Morgan were 14th and 16th fastest
respectively, the former setting a time of 1m 11.246 seconds
(119.02mph) and Morgan’s best a lap of 1m 11.277 seconds (118.97mph).
All three Manor drivers really came to the fore during the afternoon
though and while Sims led the way, Morgan improved into the top 10 with
a fastest time of 1m 10.872 seconds (119.67mph), just half a second shy
of his pace-setting team-mate, while Loane set the 13th quickest time
with a lap of 1m 11.077 seconds (119.32mph).
Thoroughly delighted with Manor’s day, Tony Shaw, team boss of the New
Ollerton squad, commented: “Obviously, I’m absolutely thrilled for to
see Manor on top again and the great thing for us is that we think the
afternoon session was the slower of the two. So to see Alexander
fastest of all with his second session time is fantastic.
“He actually said he could have been even quicker which is obviously
great to hear. The short number of laps available to drivers in tests
at Thruxton always makes it difficult for relative rookies to get to
grips with everything but our three guys did a tremendous job.”
Shaw added: “As well as being quickest, Alexander did some great set-up
work today and Kris and Sarah (Shaw; co-team owner and engineer) are
pleased with the set-up work they’ve done together. Kris could have
been a couple of 10ths of a second quicker but he wasn’t helped by red
flags which came out as soon as he had taken new tyres.
“Alex has gone much better than he ever has before at Thruxton which is
a real boost and shows we’re all moving forward as we want to.
Obviously, both he and Kris have been showing great progress lately,
they’re very closely matched. We have a great working environment here
at Manor and we’re all really enjoying ourselves right now.”
Rounds 15 and 16 of the Formula Renault UK Championship season will
take place at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent next weekend, 18th/19th
August, with pre-event testing scheduled for Friday, 17th August.
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