Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit provided the stage for the biggest race meeting of Will Bratt’s career over the weekend, with tens of thousands of spectators seeing the Oxon racer produce one of his best drives of the season.Although it initially seemed as though Will would qualify within the top six for both rounds 15 and 16 of the Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin during a pair of rain-lashed qualifying sessions, circumstances conspired against the 17-year-old meaning he would begin round 15 from 18th on the grid and round 16 from an even trickier 21st place.To salvage good points scoring finishes from either of the races was going to be a tough task but in round 15 in particular, Will impressed after finishing in 12th position following a great drive through the middle order.His lap times were superb with his best of the race, 1m 42.458 seconds, easily comparable with that posted by championship contender James Jakes, identical to the best lap set by Formula Renault UK race winner Patrick Hogan and faster than the best achieved by B4 Group Graduate Cup points leader Richard Keen.With round 15 of the season scheduled to be the first of Sunday’s races, the competitors had to contend with a difficult decision on tyre choice due to a very damp, but drying, circuit – Will opting, like the majority of the field, to make the correct decision of running on treaded wet-weather tyres.By only the second lap, Will had made his way up to 14th position and on lap five took 13th place from Scorpio Motorsport team-mate Peter Rees with a great pass. On lap 11, however, the race was red flagged after Rodolfo Gonzalez went off circuit and rolled his car, meaning Will was classified 12th overall.“There were a lot of incidents in the first couple of laps”, said Will at the conclusion of round 15. “You needed eyes everywhere as a lot of the people around me made contact with each other, although it did enable me to gain some good places early on.“The conditions were quite tricky, McLeans and Coppice were completely dry while other parts of the circuit were very wet, but I enjoyed the race. We struggled for grip on the rear of the car throughout but it was most noticeable off the grid at the start – I just couldn’t get the power down as I wanted to.“I’m pretty happy with 12th position though, especially having started in 18th place, but I think we could have finished higher if the back of the car had been more planted. Some additional downforce would have definitely helped us.”Round 16 wasn’t as successful for Will and while on paper his result of 19th position isn’t one of his better results of 2005, this doesn’t explain how Will had to fight his way back into contention for a points scoring finish after Jason Tahinci almost eliminated him from the race following a rash attempt at a passing manoeuvre. Will explained: “I’m really disappointed with this result but there was nothing I could really do as Tahinci pretty much ruined any chance I had of making progress early on. I was having a fantastic battle with Joe D’Agostino - for almost the entire first lap we were side by side and having a brilliant, close race.“But then Tahinci came from nowhere on the inside of the pair of us heading towards the hairpin and myself and Joe had to take avoiding action to make sure we didn’t end up being taken out of the race. I don’t know what Tahinci was thinking but there was absolutely no need for a move like that.”Silverstone challenge less than seven days awayWill now has less than a week in which to prepare for the penultimate race meeting of the 2005 Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin – his ‘home’ event at Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire.Less than 20-miles from the Bratt family home in Adderbury near Banbury, Silverstone is a track Will likes and he’s hoping to put on a strong showing for his local supporters, particularly after showing such impressive progress on the whole at Donington Park.Unusually, there is no official test session for the Formula Renault UK competitors in the lead up to next weekend’s 17th and 18th rounds of the season as this actually took place earlier in the year so as not to coincide with Formula One testing at the venue.Will was a highly respectable 11th fastest then, but with the improvements he’s made since that time there’s every chance the teenager can push for a place inside the top 10 at the very least.“I’m looking forward to Silverstone”, added Will. “It’s a great circuit and it’ll be nice to be close to home and race in front of family and friends. Hopefully it’ll prove to be a good event for me and I can give everyone something to cheer about. We were pretty strong in the test there earlier in the year so it could be, potentially, a great meeting for us.”Qualifying for rounds 17 and 18 will take place on Saturday, 17th September, with both races scheduled for Sunday, 18th September.Will Bratt Championship Position:B4 Group Graduate Cup Class – 2nd overallFormula Renault UK Championship with Michelin – 15th overall