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Double Donington Podium Sees Hogan Retain Series Lead |
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rish race ace Patrick Hogan recorded his eighth and ninth podium
finishes of the 2006 Formula Renault UK season at Donington Park
National Circuit today, Sunday, 30th July, to maintain his position at
the head of the championship standings.
The AKA Lemac star, who celebrated his 22nd birthday just over a week
ago, headed into the weekend confident of taking a big haul of points
from the Leicestershire venue and so he did with second position in
each of today's races, along with two crucial bonus points for setting
the fastest lap in round 12.
During both of Saturday's qualifying sessions, the Spin 103.8 and
Leaseplan-backed driver looked set to take pole position for rounds 11
and 12 but fierce title rival Sebastian Hohenthal managed to pip
Patrick to the top spot on each occasion.
At the start of this morning's 11th round of the season, Hohenthal
started well but wasn't able to shake off the attentions of Patrick's
AKA Lemac car, the Killiney-based sensation quickly beginning to swarm
all over the back of the Fortec driver.
Try as he might, Patrick wasn't quite able to produce a conclusive
overtaking attempt but with the championship battle in mind the
sensible decision would always be to protect the 28-points for taking
second position. He also just missed out on taking the fastest lap of
the race by the tiniest of margins, a mere six 100ths of a second.
Round 12, although interrupted by a Safety Car period early-on, was
similar to the first race for the two main championship protagonists
with the pair separated by a whisker for the majority of the 19-lap
encounter.
On lap 13 Patrick posted the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1m
07.245 seconds (104.78mph) and while fairly happy to settle for second
position once again with the bigger picture in mind, the Dubliner knew
the importance of securing the two extra points for the fastest lap as
it could have a pivotal bearing on the destination of the title.
"You can't help being disappointed not to have taken at least one win
this weekend but I think anyone else in the championship would be
delighted to come away with two second places and a fastest lap so we
have to be pleased", said Patrick after round 12.
"Sebastian has been very lucky this weekend. He pipped me for pole
position right at the end in first qualifying and we clearly had a
cracking car in second qualifying, it's the best it's been since before
the Croft race meeting last time out, but we just lost out again.
"I should have done a quicker lap, we were capable of it, but I got
blocked twice and there was nothing we could do. It's unfortunate we
couldn't get onto the top step of the podium this weekend but two
second places and the fastest lap in race two means very good points
for our championship."
Rounds 13 and 14 of the 2006 Formula Renault UK season will take place
at Snetterton in Norfolk two weeks from now, 12th/13th August, with
pre-event testing scheduled to take place on Friday, 11th August. Both
races are scheduled to take place on the Sunday of the meeting and are
therefore expected to be shown live on Motors TV.
Today's pair of races, meanwhile, will be re-run this Tuesday, 1st
August, at 07.00 on Motors TV. The station is available to Sky Digital
viewers on channel 413 and also via cable provider NTL on channel 173.
2006 Formula Renault UK Championship Provisional Driver Standings (after rounds 11&12):
| Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
| 1st |
Patrick Hogan |
286 |
| 2nd |
Sebastian Hohenthal |
284 |
| 3rd |
Cheng Cong Fu |
229 |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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