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Donington Test Frustrates Front-runner Bratt |
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Thursday, 27 July 2006 |
General grip problems greatly compromised Will Bratt’s potential during today’s brace of official Formula Renault UK test sessions at Donington Park National Circuit, resulting in the category race winner ending the day a frustrated 14th overall on the timesheets.
While the entire Scorpio Motorsport team began today’s test confident of a strong run ahead of the weekend’s 11th and 12th rounds of the season at its local circuit, both Will and team-mate David Epton struggled to post out and out competitive times in their Apotex Pharmaceuticals-backed cars.
During the day’s opening 65-minute session Will was reasonably satisfied with the eighth fastest time, just three 10ths of a second shy of the top two, and although posting his quickest time of the day in the afternoon with a lap of 1m 07.096 seconds (105.01mph), it unfortunately wasn’t enough to lift him into the top 10.
“Setting the eighth fastest time this morning wasn’t too bad, but even
then I wasn’t terribly happy with the car”, commented a frustrated Will
at the end of the day’s test.
“We did manage to go a little bit quicker this afternoon but the
general grip of the car was a problem, I just couldn’t go into the
corners at a high enough speed and we ended up losing a lot of time
over the course of a lap.
“I could carry a certain amount of speed but if I tried to push the car
to achieve the kind of time we should have been capable of it just
wouldn’t perform. We’re a bit frustrated to end the test outside the
top 10 and there’s no doubt we need to make some major improvements to
the set-up if we’re to mount any kind of challenge this weekend.”
Qualifying for round 11 of the Formula Renault UK season will take
place at 10.35 on Saturday, 29th July, with round 12 qualifying
scheduled to start at 15.10. Both races will follow on Sunday, 30th
July, and will be broadcast live on Motors TV.
Round 11 is set to start Sunday’s proceedings at 09.10 with the 12th
round of the year timetabled to begin at 14.20. Motors TV is available
to Sky Digital viewers through channel 413 and to NTL cable customers
on channel 173.
2006 Formula Renault UK Championship Provisional Driver Standings (after rounds 9&10):
| Pos. |
Driver |
Points |
| 1st |
Patrick Hogan |
228 |
| 2nd |
Sebastian Hohenthal |
220 |
| 3rd |
James Sutton |
185 |
| 7th |
Will Bratt |
152 |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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