FRUK latest news - Round 17 race report
WET weather coupled with a wide Silverstone track made for one of the best Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin races of recent times yesterday morning.
Alex Storckenfeldt led from start to finish in a masterful drive on slicks. “There’s always pressure when you’re leading a race,” said the 21-year-old Team AKA driver who made the win look easy. “Especially in the beginning when you have to lead the way in tricky conditions. When I saw it was wet this morning I was a bit worried because I haven’t had such good results in the rain, but the car felt good.”
The race got off to a dramatic start when Team Firstair’s Richard Keen (Amersham, Bucks) ran into championship leader, Oliver Jarvis (Burwell, Cambs) ending the Manor Motorsport driver’s race. But title hopefuls James Jakes (Leeds) and Sean McIntosh (Vancouver, Canada) could not do maximum damage to Jarvis’ points standings, finishing seventh and third respectively.
“It’s still close,” said McIntosh who started the race from fourth - 46 points behind Jarvis. “There’s three rounds left and more than 90 points up for grabs so I’m hopeful. By the time I got past Patrick Hogan the two front runners were too far ahead to challenge for a second or third. The race settled down so I concentrated on finishing but then Paddy started to catch me and I had to step it up again.”
Hogan (Killiney, Co. Dublin) started the race in second but lost a place to Stuart Hall (Halstead, Essex) at Copse on lap two. He managed to hold off fourth-place McIntosh until lap nine, when he resisted the Canadian at Brooklands but conceded at Luffield. “I was struggling for pace to start with,” said the 21-year-old Manor Motorsport driver. “We had a dry set up and as the track got drier I got the fastest lap of the race.”
Hall drove a strong race in second, recovering a three-second gap from Storckenfeldt to 0.541 at the chequered flag. “I was pushing hard but he’s no slouch,” said the 20-year-old Fortec Motorsport driver. “I wasn’t under pressure from behind but I don’t just want to sit in second. I want to try and win.”
Tom Kimber-Smith (Shiplake, Oxon) was awarded driver of the day after an entertaining battle with Yelmer Buurman (Ubbergen, Holland) and James Jakes (Leeds) in the final stages of the race. Buurman was passed by both Jakes and Kimber-Smith on lap 17 after having a go at fourth-place Hogan. In the chaos Jakes also managed to get past Hogan and Kimber-Smith tried to follow suit resulting in a nail-biting scuffle at Brooklands with the drivers three abreast. At the end of the lap Hogan was still in front with Jakes, Kimber-Smith and Buurman in hot pursuit.
“It was just about trying to find the right time to overtake without crashing,” said Kimber-Smith who got past Jakes one lap later along with Buurman. “I seemed to be a lot quicker than Jakes and Buurman. I think in these mixed conditions I have proved that I can be the quickest out there.”
In the Graduate Cup Will Bratt pulled 10 points back from leader Keen after his DNF. The gap between the two is now just 20 points with two rounds to go.
Provisional race result1. A. Storckenfeldt; 2. S. Hall; 3. S. McIntosh; 4. P. Hogan; 5. T. Kimber-Smith; 6. Y. Buurman; 7. J. Jakes; 8. S. Simpson; 9. J. Sutton; 10. R. Gonzalez
For all the latest Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin news visit the official Renault Sport UK website www.renaultsport.co.uk built by Racecar
