at Renault Formula UK Silverstone Rounds
The Silverstone rounds of the Formula Renault UK championship formed part of the Renault World Series event and attracted a bumper crown of well over 100,000 over the weekend.Qualifying didn’t quite go to plan, with an engine problem robbing any chance of any improvement during the session, to leave Kieren Clark 16th on both race grids. After a frantic engine change, KC was back on the grid ready for the 2 Sunday races.
A stunning start in Race 1 made up 3 places into Copse and picking off 2 more along the straight into Becketts. Lining up to overtake again into Becketts, a spin ahead of the hard charging pack, caused some quick braking and KC was unfortunate enough to just catch his front wing on the car in front. With the front wing rattling loose, there was no choice but to pit and change the nose. Some quick work by the Apotex Scorpio team got KC out, but by now 2 laps down. Treating the session as race practice, KC was consistently lapping with times around the top 10, to finish 17th from the 22 car field for some valuable points.
Another dynamic start in race 2, again from 16th on the grid, saw Kieren streak to 9th after the first lap, ahead of his more experienced team-mate Will Bratt. After 4 laps of being pressured by Will, KC had to defend off line and Will got through, then stormed on to pass Calado.
On lap 8, KC passed Calado at Stowe for 9th, but Calado fought back to regain the place. After the tussle with Will and Calado, Loane managed to sneak through, having had a bad start from 5th on the grid, and was looking to make up his lost positions. Keeping out of trouble for the remainder of the 16 lap race, KC crossed the line for a well deserved 11th.
"My tyres felt awful after going off line for so long, defending against Will.” Said KC “the car was excellent up to that point. I tried to make the place on James (Calado), but went into the corner too fast and he had the better line on the way out so kept the position. After that, it was proving to be a real struggle to keep ahead of Kris (Loane). After the agro of the engine yesterday, it was good to make up places in the race. The team did a great job of getting me back out on track, and I’ve picked up some good points. I can’t wait until Snetterton now!"
The next Rounds of the Formula Renault UK championship are back with the British Touring Cars at Snetterton on July 12th and 13th with live TV coverage on ITV4 on Sunday afternoon.
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