Manor Competition made a highly competitive start to official Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship pre-season testing at Brands Hatch in Kent this week, the Nottinghamshire team delighted with the progress of all four of its drivers.

By the end of the two day run, which took place on Tuesday, 1st March, and Wednesday, 2nd March, Ollie Millroy led the way for Manor with the third fastest lap on combined times while Graduate Cup runners Jordan King and Alice Powell were fifth and sixth respectively and Josh Hill was eighth. 

Only 0.4 seconds separated the top eight by the end of the two days at the 1.2-mile Indy Circuit and although Claygate 20-year-old Millroy was just a mere 0.053 seconds shy of the outright pace, he could have concluded the test as the quickest of all had a flap bracket not broken on his front wing. Working through set-up options on old tyres during Tuesday, Millroy really came to the fore on the second morning where he emerged quickest with a lap of 43.076 seconds (100.17mph).

One of just three drivers to dip below the 43 second barrier on Wednesday afternoon, his final new tyre run was impacted by the front wing problem. Warwickshire 17-year-old King enjoyed a very impressive couple of days and concluded the opening official test within just 0.2 seconds of the top of the times - the second fastest of the youngsters eligible for the Graduate Cup class this year - thanks to his best lap from Wednesday morning. Tuesday's outing started off on a damp track and King ran well throughout, ending session one in fifth and then rounding out the afternoon with an excellent third fastest time on old tyres - the best of the Manor quartet.

Third again on Wednesday morning, just 0.061 seconds shy of Millroy, King wasn't able to improve further in the final session after an excursion at Paddock Hill Bend. Reigning Formula Renault BARC Champion Powell, who is also eligible for the Graduate Cup battle this season, was very evenly matched with King in the end and finished the test inside the top six with a time a shade over 0.2 seconds off the outright pace. Running on very old tyres for the bulk of the test, meaning her day one times weren't representative of her genuine speed, the 18-year-old from Chipping Norton was eighth fastest - within 0.5 seconds of Millroy - on Wednesday morning and then improved very well in the last session to go sixth.

Hill did a tremendous job to be within 0.4 seconds of the outright pace by the end of the test, especially considering he had to contend with an electrical issue which caused his car to cut-out through left-hand corners.  Fourth fastest overall at the end of the first day, within 0.5 seconds of the top, the 20-year-old from Farnham was within 0.3 seconds of the pace on the second morning and then produced his best lap of all - 43.325 seconds (99.59mph) - in the final outing to end the two days a creditable eighth. 

Reflecting on the test, team co-owner Tony Shaw said: "We're pleased with how everything went at Brands. Ollie was right there at the top and on combined sectors he should have been fastest of all but the breakage to the front wing flap prevented that. Josh did very well considering the electrical gremlin on his car, to be within 0.4 seconds of the pace having coped with that was a great effort.

"Jordan did look as though he could be in the top three at the end after such a terrific job on old tyres on day one, without his off at Paddock we're sure he'd have been right there. Alice too did a fantastic job, she put in a lot of laps with really worn out tyres and although she didn't quite get the best from her new set her time was still very quick."

Manor Competition will be back in action next Tuesday, 8th March, and Wednesday, 9th March, for the second officially timed test of the Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship pre-season at Croft in North Yorkshire.