Pippa Mann drove a solid second race at Estoril to take a deserved 15th position at the World Series by Renault event in Portugal. The penultimate race meeting of the year was dogged by gearbox problems, a qualifying session that was over before it had begun, and a lap one incident in the first race that put pay to any real chance the young British driver had of getting into the points. Nonetheless, her impressive performance, consistency and speed was something positive to take away from the weekend, with the rookie driver showing more potential than ever.
When the lights went out Mann got off the line well from 24th, with plenty of momentum despite some slight wheel spin. She managed to complete lap one without incident and started the second lap in 22nd position, pushing hard to catch Dani Move (Interwetten). On lap three Mann dived down the inside of Move at the first turn and successfully passed the Russian driver. A couple of laps later Mann repeated the move on Comtec's Michael Herck, leaving the 23-year old from Suffolk in 20th position.
Now lying behind championship contender and fellow Brit Ben Hanley (Prema Powerteam), the team began to urge Mann to push harder. Mann responded and her lap times instantly came down, though she was suffering from slight handling problems due to wear on her tyres. Sticking close to the tail of Hanley, Mann continued to fight for position, but after eight laps the Prema Powerteam car pulled into the pits and Mann moved up into 19th position.
The No.20 Cram by P1 car was now closing in on Carlin Motorsport's Mikhail Aleshin, but the Russian noticed Mann in his mirrors and responded accordingly, pulling away by a couple of tenths. Mann soon closed the gap again and the pair were now nose to tail and catching the group of cars ahead.
Both Aleshin and Mann managed to squeeze past Salvador Duran (Interwetten) and were now lying in 14th and 15th position respectively. Unable to get close enough to Aleshin's rear wing, despite setting her fastest time of the race on the last lap, Mann was forced to settle for 15th place.
It was a tough weekend for Mann, who is now approaching the end of her first season in the World Series by Renault. However, she remained upbeat about the situation, saying, "We have been quick all weekend and I can't be unhappy about that. Obviously the gearbox problems hindered us from the start, and that's very frustrating in light of how quick we were at an event that as it turns out, would have had so much potential."
