Will Bratt rounded off his Formula Renault UK Winter Championship campaign in superb fashion at Croft Circuit on Saturday, taking a best ever category result of fifth place en-route to an impressive joint-eighth position overall in the final driver standings.The 17-year-old Scorpio Motorsport ace began the weekend in tremendous form during pre-event testing on Thursday and Friday, but his race-craft and ability in the final round of the winter series was the true highlight; fifth position a richly deserved result.Will started the race fifth on the grid after an impressive run during round four qualifying, the Adderbury teenager actually holding pole position for much of the 20-minute session with terrific mastery of the wet circuit.However, with just a couple of minutes remaining, a dry line began to rapidly appear on the track, allowing a handful of drivers who had gambled on changing to slick tyres mid-way through the session to move ahead of Will on the timesheets.His eventual starting position of fifth for the final race of the winter series was a good result in itself but Will was also able to take heart from the fact he had topped the times for the majority of the session.At the start of round four, Will made an electric getaway from the grid to rocket into fourth place and by lap five he had started to pressure third-placed Finnish driver Markus Niemela. Will himself was coming under pressure from the faster car of James Sutton though, and on lap seven he had to cede position having put up a gutsy, stern defence.By lap 10, Will had begun to make up ground on Sutton and at the chequered flag two laps later the Oxon ace had closed to within just six 10ths of a second of fourth place. “It was a great race”, said Will after taking his best ever Formula Renault UK result,  “I’m a bit disappointed not to have finished higher as I really wanted to hold on to fourth place but we’ve got to be pleased with a top five result. My start was incredible, if I can do that every time we race from now on I’ll be happy!“In the championship it allowed us to break into the top eight so we can build on this during winter testing and hopefully head into next season with a lot of confidence and the opportunity of making a real impression on the established front-runners.”The day’s opening qualifying session, to determine the grid for round three, was nothing short of a disaster for Will as his car mysteriously lacked grip at just about every corner on the 2.12-mile North Yorkshire track.He wasn’t best pleased with the end result of 16th place on the grid, but at the start of the race Will instantly managed to make up places and by lap three he was in 13th position and challenging Portuguese driver Joao Vasconcelos.

The race was quickly becoming one of the most eventful of the year for Will and after another tremendous overtaking manoeuvre he found himself in 12th place on lap four, reeling in the cars of Finnish driver Markus Niemela and the Dutch pairing of Dennis Retera and Mervyn Kool.On lap eight Will held 10th position, before claiming ninth place a lap later. But an incident on lap 11 between Bradley Ellis and Mervyn Kool gave Will the opportunity to take advantage and move into seventh position where he remained unchallenged to the chequered flag.“I really did enjoy the race”, said Will, “It was fantastic to overtake so many people and I was happy with the set-up of the car. To go from 16th place on the grid to seventh in the race was awesome and I think it showed we’re capable of racing strongly.”Like his fellow competitors, Will now heads into a winter testing programme in preparation for the 2006 Formula Renault UK Championship which begins next April.Final Formula Renault UK Winter Championship Standings (provisional):

1st Junior Strous, 106pts; 2nd Cheng Congfu, 101pts; 3rd Patrick Hogan, 84pts;4th James Sutton, 83pts; 5th Dennis Retera, 68pts; 6th Markus Niemela, 61pts;=8th Will Bratt & Jeremy Metcalfe, 54pts