Hot on the heels of his timesheet-topping performance at Silverstone a fortnight ago, Sam Bird (19, Claygate), was again the quickest Formula Renault driver at the challenging Donington Park track on his first ever visit to the Grand Prix circuit.  His record breaking time of 1.30.152  beat the existing lap record by almost exactly one second, in a sport where a thousandth of a second can win or lose a race.  Unfortunately the time doesn’t count as a lap record as it was set during testing and not in a race.  However, having done only half the laps of  many of his competitors, he had good reason to feel satisfied with his day’s work.

“After my disastrous outing at Donington last month, with a broken driveshaft in the first race and being punted off track in a 125mph crash into the tyre wall in the second, I just had to put all that behind me and concentrate on learning the GP circuit” said Sam at the end of the day.  “Fortec has set up my new car fantastically well and now it is painted and liveried with my sponsors’ logos, you can’t tell the difference from my old car.  I just want to continue this form into qualifying on Saturday and try for two front of the grid positions to give me the best chance in the races on Sunday”. 

Sam’s Fortec team mate Sebastian Hohenthal was second on the timesheets, just 0.347 behind Sam, while the other two Fortec drivers were both less than a second behind in 10th and 11th places.

The weekend’s racing should be exciting, with World Series by Renault, Formula Renault UK, Eurocup, Megane and Clio races plus a Renault Formula One demonstration and exhibition.