.. improve Championship position

Driving rain and a drenched track greeted Will Bratt when he arrived at Knockhill for the 13th and 14th rounds of the Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin, and he left Scotland yesterday afternoon one position higher in the title standings.While pleased to have moved further up the overall order and happy to have closed the gap to Richard Keen in the ‘B4 Group Graduate Cup’, the Oxon teenager was nonetheless disappointed not to have taken more from the weekend after crashing out of round 14 following a collision with Matt Shawyer.Qualifying, for round 13 in particular, was incredibly close and just a 10th of a second meant the difference between a top 10 starting slot and the eventual 16th position on the grid Will achieved.The conditions at the start of the first of the weekend’s races were atrocious but Will relished the wet weather, passing Bradley Ellis on lap two for 15th position and then moving up into 14th place on lap five. However, the Safety Car was then deployed after Graduate Cup points leader Richard Keen left his braking a little too late and went off the circuit, suffering a very heavy impact in the process. Although it took a while to extract Keen from his stricken car, he was thankfully given the all-clear after a visit to the circuit medical centre.Racing resumed on lap 14 and Will instantly began to pressurise Jean-Robert Niogret for 14th position. However, after several laps of trying to force Niogret into a mistake, the Scorpio Motorsport ace took the wise decision to take some healthy championship points rather than make any risky moves.Good news would come Will’s way on lap 21 though, when Patrick Hogan spun out of ninth position and therefore promoted Will into 13th place on the track, which he maintained to the chequered flag. In addition, he also set the fastest lap of the Graduate Cup runners with a time of 58.312 seconds (80.17mph).“We’re obviously pleased to be closer to Richard (Keen) in the Graduate Cup but it certainly wasn’t achieved in the manner we wanted”, said Will. “We’re all just happy he escaped the crash uninjured and I’m pleased with the way my own race went really.”The Adderbury-based 17-year-old would start round 14 from 18th place on the grid and after another good start he found himself in 15th position by the end of lap one and just three 10ths of a second behind Matt Shawyer. Unfortunately, on lap two, as Will attempted to pass Shawyer, the two came together forcing both to retire from the race. “I’m pleased with the weekend overall”, added Will. “I like driving in the wet and I think if I hadn’t have been hit by Shawyer in the second race we’d have made good progress. We did, at least, discover I had a problem with a sticking throttle in qualifying so hopefully we’ve finally found what has been causing us our pace issues.”Will Bratt Championship Position:

B4 Group Graduate Cup Class – 2nd overallFormula Renault UK Championship with Michelin – 15th overall