BRDC Rising Stars member Jack Aitken continued to show consistent form by being the highest placed Formula Renault 2.0 NEC driver of the penultimate round in Most this weekend. Against the odds Jack has extended the fight for the title to the final round in Zandvoort. This continues the strong recovery evident after the first two rounds. Over the last four race weekends Jack has accumulated more points than any of his NEC rivals.
The high quality field in the Czech Republic was one of the largest on the 2013 calendar, with 36 competitors, many of who were experienced drivers in the Formula Renault Eurocup, meant that competition was going to be tough for 17 year old Jack, who is competiting in only his second year of single-seater racing.
He made a solid start to the weekend by posting the top six fastest times in the four NEC test sessions on Thursday and set the third and seventh quickest lap times during free practice track time on Friday.
Jack qualified with the fourth fastest time in his group on Saturday morning, despite being held up by traffic on the fast, narrow, and undulating circuit. As a result, he qualified in seventh position overall for race one, in fourth for race two and in third place for race three (reverse grid).
Jack made a commanding start to race one in the afternoon by climbing three spots to P4 at turn one of the first lap. NEC points leader Matt Parry was taken out of race at the start which meant that Jacks ultimate fourth place finish (first of the NEC series regulars) and 17 points haul edged him closer to Parry in the Championship standings.
A great start to race two on Sunday morning saw Jack take Steijn Schothorst (Josef Kaufmann Racing) on the outside for P3 on lap one. He took the fight to the more experienced Eurocup drivers, but running on older tyres than most of the field, was unable to improve on third. However, Jack crossed the finish line as the only NEC driver to achieve a podium all weekend, scoring a further 20 points. With Parry failing to score once again, Jack's points tally closed the gap to the top of the leader board and takes the title fight to the final round in Zandvoort.
After starting in third on the grid for race three on Sunday afternoon Jack dropped to 22nd following a first lap incident with Andrea Pizzitola. He made a charge through the field to overtake more cars than any other driver all weekend, and had recovered to 12th position by the end of the 17-lap race. Jacks strong performance was enough to eat a further nine points into Parrys advantage, who completed a point-less weekend, and bring Jack to within 75 points of the top of the Championship table. With 90 points available during the final round at Zandvoort, Jack still has a theoretical chance of becoming 2013 Champion.
Jack Aitken comments, I felt good all weekend. I managed to get an edge over Matt (Parry) in the practice sessions and I was best of the NEC runners for most of the weekend. During the last race I made a mistake but came through the field to bring more points home. With one round to go I am still in the fight for the Championship, and I'm looking forward to Zandvoort next month.
The seventh and final round of the Championship takes place at Zandvoort, The Netherlands, on 13th October 2013.
2013 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC standings after 14 races:1. Matt Parry, 272 points; 2. Jack Aitken, 197; 3. Dennis Olsen, 185; 4. Andrea Pizzitola, 170; 5. Steijn Schothorst, 163; 6. Oliver Rowland, 148; 7. Raoul Owens, 126; 8. Mikko Pakari, 125; 9. Nicolas Jamin, 124; 10. Esteban Ocon, 122.
Full results for the 2013 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC can be found at http://necup.com/index.php/results.
