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Bratt Salvages Top 10 From Tough Snetterton Weekend |
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Monday, 14 August 2006 |
Oxon teenager Will Bratt managed to maintain seventh position in the Formula Renault UK Championship standings at Snetterton today after one of his most difficult weekends of the 2006 season.
The Scorpio Motorsport ace, who is backed by Apotex Pharmaceuticals, headed into today’s two races with a tough battle on his hands having qualified 11th on the grid for round 13 and then 13th on the grid for round 14 after a wet-weather set-up gamble unfortunately failed to pay off on Saturday.
Will performed particularly well in the first of today’s races to achieve a deserved top 10 finish, especially considering he dropped down to 13th place on the opening lap. By the third tour of the circuit he was up into 12th place and then a good pass on championship rival James Sutton saw him move back into 11th and in with a chance of a top 10 finish.
Pressurising Josh Fisher for the next half a dozen laps, Will also needed to be mindful of Sutton’s presence but on lap 11 he finally made the breakthrough and moved ahead into 10th place which he held to the chequered flag.
Speaking after the race, the 18-year-old said: “I pushed hard to get by Fisher as I could see (Duncan) Tappy was
getting away and I knew Josh was holding me up. I’m fairly happy with
my race pace really and I think 10th is a fair result, especially
considering I dropped down to 13th on the first lap.”
Race two proved to be an altogether different scenario for the Oulton
Park race winner, a total lack of grip and straight-line speeding
leaving the Scorpio team with no doubt an as-yet-undiscovered problem
was affecting the performance of Will’s car from the very beginning of
round 14.
On the opening lap Will looked destined to go backwards as he struggled
to keep the car on the circuit and after slipping down the order to
18th at one stage, he did manage to salvage 16th position with some
determined driving.
“My car had no grip at all and was very slow down the straights”,
explained Will at the end of round 14, “We think there’s some damage on
the car which we haven’t uncovered yet but the team will check that at
the workshop and see what the reason was.
“It’s been a difficult weekend, I haven’t really enjoyed Snetterton at
all, but we need to look forward to Donington as we know we have a good
set-up there. It’s been an unfortunate weekend but there was nothing I
could do, the car just wasn’t working and so we need to work out why.”
Both of today’s races, which were broadcast live, will be replayed in
full on Motors TV this Wednesday, 16th August, at 07.00 on channel 413
of the Sky Digital platform and channel 173 through the NTL cable
network.
Rounds 15 and 16 of the Formula Renault UK season will take place four
weeks from now, 9th/10th September, at Donington Park Grand Prix
Circuit in Leicestershire. Along with his championship bid, Will is
also firmly in contention for the prestigious Donington Park Racing
Association Club (DPRAC) Cup.
Having scored heavily during the championship’s previous visit to
Donington in July, Will is very handily placed to claim the trophy
which will be presented to the British driver who has scored the most
points over the course of the quartet of Formula Renault UK races to be
contested at the Leicestershire venue this season.
Before then, Will and the rest of the championship competitors will be
in action at Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire for a day
of exclusive testing on Tuesday, 22nd August.
2006 Formula Renault UK Championship Provisional Driver Standings (after rounds 13&14):
| Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
| 1st |
Patrick Hogan |
348 |
| 2nd |
Sebastian Hohenthal |
346 |
| 3rd |
Cheng Cong Fu |
254 |
| 7th |
Will Bratt |
199 |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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