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Exciting single-seater racer Will Bratt produced a sparkling performance on
his GP2 test debut at Paul Ricard HTTT in southern France yesterday, Thursday,
25th September, the 20-year-old British star lapping within nine 10ths of a
second of the outright pace.
Taking his maiden miles in GP2 at the wheel of a David Price Racing
engineered car, and also making his first ever outing at Paul Ricard, the
20-year-old Banbury driver completed around 100 laps on the day with a best time
of 1m 14.047 seconds for the Surrey team.
Placing Will an excellent 13th fastest overall, his performance was within
just half a second of experienced GP2 driver Diego Nunes, who was fourth
quickest, and only nine 10ths of a second shy of pace-setter, regular GP2 runner
Kamui Kobayashi.
Impressively, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star was
faster than former Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan, fellow Spanish Formula
3 Championship racer Christian Ebbesvik, Formula 3 Euroseries front-runners
Koudai Tsukakoshi and James Jakes and regular David Price Racing GP2 competitor
Michael Herck, among others.
Commenting on his tremendous debut test run in the Formula One World
Championship support category, Will said: “It was a very cool experience running
in the GP2 car, I really enjoyed it and I think we did a pretty good job.
Considering it was my first time on track at Paul Ricard and my debut in a GP2
car, I’m very happy with the times we achieved.
“GP2 is much more physical than F3, there’s obviously much more power which
means harder braking – you have to dominate the car to get the most out of it. I
enjoyed working with the guys at DPR, it’s a great team and we certainly made
good progress.”
Team boss David Price added: “Considering Will has never been in a car like
a GP2, he did an excellent job. Diego Nunes, who raced with us at DPR this year
in GP2 and was in one of iSport International’s cars during the test, was only
half a second quicker than Will so that was a very good benchmark.
“GP2 testing at Paul Ricard is always very close so for Will to have ended
the day in the top half of the field on his debut is very good. He was in
amongst his contemporaries and we were very pleased with the job he did. With a
second day in the car, we’re sure he’d be in the top 10.”
Price continued: “Will is good to work with, he listens to what he’s being
told, puts it into practice and concentrates on the job in hand and what he has
to do. He certainly has some very good potential to do well at this
level.”
GP2 is, of course, the true ante-chamber to Formula One featuring identical
carbon fibre cars, built by Italian constructor Dallara, powered by 4-litre, V8
Renault engines producing in excess of 600bhp. The cars also run on slick
Bridgestone tyres and utilise F1-style technology such as paddle-shift
sequential gears.
With his GP2 debut now completed, Will returns to the wheel of his
EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport Formula 3 car today, Friday, 26th September,
during pre-event testing ahead of this weekend’s 12th and 13th rounds of the
FIAT Spanish F3 Championship.
Provisional 2008 FIAT Spanish F3 Championship Driver Standings
(after Rd11):
1st Nelson Panciatici, 75pts; 2nd Nicola De Marco,
66pts; 10th Will Bratt, 26pts
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