Will Stevens netted his fifth podium finish of the season with second place in round 12 of the Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship at Snetterton on Sunday. Taking a break from the Eurocup to make a guest appearance in the domestic series, Will had proved the pace-setter from the start, fastest in Friday’s opening practice session and first qualifying, and second fastest in qualifying two.
Starting from the front row for race two, Will made a perfect getaway to hold position into the first corner. For much of the 14 laps, the 20 year-old from Oxshott , Surrey maintained a comfortable advantage over the third placed driver while holding a one-second gap to the leader.
As the race progressed, Will began to struggle in the first sector and began to come under pressure on lap 10, briefly losing the place to former series leader Tio Ellinas on the entry to Turn 2. But the BRDC Rising Star correctly read the situation and immediately regained the place on the exit.
Thereafter Will pulled out a slight gap over the remaining laps, and despite a determined last-lap effort by Ellinas to wrest the place back again, Will held his nerve to take second at the flag.
Race one had proved less successful for the former British, European and Asian-Pacific kart champion. After recording the pole-setting time in Saturday’s qualifying, the Fortec racer later had his times disallowed as he was deemed to be underweight. Starting from the back row, ten seconds behind the field, Will had a tough job ahead to claw back the places and a fuel pressure problem on lap three ended any chance of recovery.
“I’m very happy with the weekend as we had great pace right from first practice,” said Will. “I’d never raced on the new layout and we were fastest first time out on Friday then quickest in qualifying one and second quickest in qualifying two.
“That’s a pretty good result and is a very positive performance on my return to the UK series, ahead of Silverstone. In the opening race, it was always going to be a struggle getting back into the mix from the back of the grid, and with a ten second penalty, but I was hopeful I might be able to make some progress.
“In race two we all made the same start and so it was hard to overtake on the opening lap but I was happy to match the pace of the leader. I struggled slightly in the first sector, which allowed Ellinas to close up, but in the second I was much faster and so managed to pull away from him.
“On lap ten though he made a good exit out of turn one where I was struggling, and managed to get past me going into the first part of the chicane, but I managed to cut back in front on the exit and then pull away slightly. It’s good to leave here on a high with good pace and a strong result and put into practice some of the stuff we’ve learnt in Europe before we head to Silverstone, which was always our aim.”
Will returns to race action at Silverstone in two weeks time with the British rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship, which supports the World Series by Renault. Around 50,000 spectators are expected at the Northamptonshire circuit for three days of track action, which kicks off with testing on Friday 19 August.
