Alexander Sims continued to stamp his authority on the Formula Renault UK
pre-season at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit yesterday, Tuesday, 4th March; the Manor
Competition ace producing superb pace during the opening day of testing at the
Kent venue
Having headed the times at the conclusion of last week’s two-day test at
Rockingham in Northamptonshire, the Wansford-based sensation continued to
underline his position as a pre-eminent championship favourite at Brands Hatch
in generally good conditions.
Leading the way for the vast majority of the afternoon session by as much
as four 10ths of a second, Alexander was only pipped to the top spot by 0.154
seconds with just minutes of the three hours remaining. Posting a best time of
44.044 seconds, he ended up with the third fastest time during the
afternoon.
Importantly though, Alexander was the quickest of the drivers to have
remained on older rubber throughout the day. Considering new tyres should offer
between three and four 10ths of a second advantage at the 1.2-mile circuit, the
Manor driver is rightly confident heading into today’s second day of running at
Brands Hatch.
“Yesterday was another good day for us, we were on top for most of the
afternoon by about four 10ths of a second”, said the Cambridgeshire racer, “The
important thing is that we used the same tyres we ran at Rockingham, we didn’t
take new rubber, and we also made sure we didn’t put too many laps on the tyres
to maintain good performance.
“There were a lot of people who ran 30, 40 or 50 laps in the afternoon
alone but we made a conscious decision to keep the laps down. The team has been
very organised and I’m really pleased with our performance once again.”
During the opening four-hour session Alexander posted the fifth fastest
time. He added: “We should have been a bit quicker in the morning, there were
one or two handling issues but the team sorted those for the afternoon and I’m
confident we were the best package out there.
“I think today will be much the same as the second day at Rockingham last
week, we’ll keep the laps to a minimum, hopefully be quick and end the day near
the top of the times. I’m feeling pretty confident right now and very pleased
with how things are going.”
Official pre-season testing continues from 09.00 this morning, Wednesday,
5th March, at Brands Hatch.
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