Russell Racing saw a near-certain maiden top 10 finish for Bahraini driver Mohamed Al A’li unfortunately become an enforced retirement during round seven of the Formula Renault BARC season at Snetterton Saturday afternoon
With Bahraini 16-year-old Essa Mohammed forced to sit-out the event after injuring himself in a karting accident during the build-up to the weekend, Russell Racing fielded three of its four cars and during qualifying it was Al A’li who emerged as the team’s fastest driver with a superb lap of 1m 09.099 seconds (101.69mph).Placing him a career-best 10th on the grid, just seven 10ths of a second shy of pole position, Al A’li lined-up eight positions ahead of team-mate Menasheh Idafar who, in turn, was four places higher on the grid than Mark Gillibrand, the Manchester racer an uncharacteristic 22nd after suffering from clutch problems.At the start of round seven, Gillibrand produced an absolutely outstanding getaway and on the opening lap alone he climbed an incredible seven positions before reaching the Esses. He then gained a further place at the expense of team-mate Idafar, who himself enjoyed a great first lap, with a move up the inside on the approach to Coram Curve.Conversely, Al A’li didn’t get the start he wanted and slipped a couple of positions but was back into the top 10 by lap three. After passing Chris Dittman for 11th place, the Middle East-Russell Racing entered racer then delivered a good piece of overtaking at the Esses to snatch 10th from Denis Autier.Gillibrand also moved ahead of Dittman before the end of the lap to move into 12th place, an outstanding improvement of 10 places on his grid slot, but on lap five his hard work was undone following a spin at the Esses. Having earlier glanced the kerbs at Russell Chicane, fluid from a subsequent gearbox leak looked to have been a contributing factor to the spin.With Mark’s car beached on the kerbs at the exit of the Esses, race officials had no option but to bring out the red flags and so for the re-start Russell Racing’s challenge would be led by Al A’li who would line-up in 10th position with Idafar in 14th place.Another difficult opening lap saw Al A’li slip to 16th while Idafar did well to remain ahead of experienced front-runner Aaron Steele. No sooner had the race been re-started though, the red flags were shown for a second time.The third and final re-start, which would be contested over just five laps, saw Al A’li arrive at the Esses in 10th position but damage to his suspension following contact saw him forced to retire from the event. Idafar, meanwhile, also carried damage to his car with a broken front wing which was suffered during the second part of the race.Having been forced wide onto the grass between the Esses and the Bomb Hole on the first lap, he then had a spin at Sear Corner and made the sensible decision to pit at the end of his second lap due to the distinct lack of grip available to him.Even though all three cars encountered difficulties during the course of the race, moral in the Russell Racing camp is extremely high ahead of Sunday’s eighth round and hopes are high Al A’li, Gilliband and Idafar can all achieve career-best results tomorrow.
“To see all three drivers forced to retire was bitterly disappointing but we’re all delighted with the race pace they’ve shown and we’re confident of some very good results tomorrow”, said team owner Tim Russell, “Mohamed did a fantastic job in qualifying and we know Mark would have been there or thereabouts without his clutch problems.“Just a couple of 10ths of a second would have lifted Menasheh into the top 15 on the grid too, he really is improving well. Mohamed and Mark looked well placed for top 10 results in the race so it’s a shame how things turned out but we’re very confident all three drivers will produce excellent showings on Sunday.”
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