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In only his first full season in
Formula Renault, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs narrowly missed out on the runner-up spot
in the hotly contested Formula Renault 2.0 Italia Cup at
Monza this weekend. The 17 year-old Sackville School pupil
once again showed a cracking pace at the historic Italian track, going into the
second race of the weekend with a realistic chance of converting his seventh
place grid start into a podium finish, which would have given him second in the
title battle.
However a broken driveshaft five
laps in while battling for the position which would have guaranteed him at least
third, meant he left the circuit in fourth place. A staggering 48 drivers
entered the championship in 2008 underlining his impressive performance in only
his second season in single-seaters.
In the first official practice at
the circuit, the BRDC Rising Star suffered with a fuel system problem leaving
the teenager characteristically off the pace. However a sterling job by the BVM
Minardi team quickly rectified the problem and allowed the Tonbridge racer a
return to form in the crucial qualifying session.
Around the ultra-fast
Monza track,
Adrian managed a sixth and seventh place
grid slot for the two races, achieved without the benefit of slipstreaming the
opposition.
For the weekend’s opening race and
despite not making any significant changes after qualifying,
Adrian drove a steady race to
11th although a handling problem left him not entirely happy with the
set-up of his car. However as a
leading championship contender, following the race he was required to have his
car scrutineered, along with many of his rivals.
With the car completely stripped
and returned to the team prior to race two, the team once again worked well to
get the car set-up leaving Adrian confident of being able to convert
his third row start into a potential podium finish.
After making one of his customary
good starts, Adrian was in amongst the battle for
third in the championship before his driveshaft broke after five laps, leaving
him frustrated at what might have been.
“The team did a fantastic job in
sorting out the fuel system problems we had in practice and I was happy to be
sixth and seventh quickest in qualifying even without a tow, which around Monza
is pretty good, said Adrian. “In the first race we had a problem with the
handling which meant I spun off into the gravel, but despite that I managed to
get back up to 11th at the flag.
“At the end, the main championship
contenders were all called for scrutineering and after that the team had to
rebuild everything ready for race two.
So, we were back to the original settings but still in a great position
to be challenging for second in the title battle.
“I made a great start and was
battling for position and feeling pretty confident that I could get another
strong finish and at the very least, third in the championship, when coming out
of the chicane the driveshaft broke and I had to park it.
“It’s a very frustrating end to the
weekend obviously as we were so close. But you can’t predict these things,
driveshafts do break and I know I must not forget that I finished fourth out of
48 drivers who registered for this championship, in only my first year in
Formula Renault.”
Adrian will resume his 2008 season in the
final rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship at Catalunya this
weekend 18/19 October.
Final championship positions: 1 Pål
Varhaug 330, 2 Michele Faccin 271, 3 Niky Sebastiani 270, 4 Adrian
Quaife- Hobbs 250, 5 Sergio Campana 238, 6 Cesar
Ramos 216, 7 Patrick Kronenberger 196, 8 Genis Olive 178, 9 Daniel Zampieri 158,
10 Stef Dusseldorp 125…………
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