Excellent pace went unrewarded for Raoul Owens at Spa-Francorchamps over the weekend during rounds eight and nine of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, incidents in both races at the challenging Belgian track spoiling his terrific potential.Quick from the outset during free practice on Thursday, 24th July, the Mark Burdett Motorsport driver was fourth fastest in the first session and inside the top eight during the second run to carry a great deal of confidence into the all-important qualifying sessions.Continuing his terrific form, Raoul qualified with the fourth fastest time for round eight, having posted a best time of 2m19.853 seconds, but post-session he was dropped back to seventh on the grid for race one on Friday, 25th July, due to a perceived yellow flag indiscretion.Despite making a good start, contact from Callan O’Keefe at the Bus Stop Chicane at the end of lap one dropped Raoul down to the middle of the pack but the Pembury 19-year-old was determined to mount a strong recovery and finished the race less than a couple of seconds shy of the top 10.Raoul displayed his intent by setting the fastest first sector on lap three and he proceeded to carve his way back through the order. Pace-wise, the Briton set a best lap of 2m21.472 seconds which was on a par with podium performance – frustratingly, in fact, his quickest times were faster than those set by eventual podium finishers Ben Barnicoat and Louis Deletraz.For round nine on Saturday, 26th July, Raoul started the encounter from the sixth row of the grid and he brilliantly sliced his way through to ninth on the opening lap. His progress was halted by an early Safety Car period but when the action resumed at the beginning of lap five, he set about attacking compatriot Seb Morris.After passing Morris at La Source on lap six, Morris looked for a way back past on the run out of Eau Rouge towards Les Combes but as the pair went into the braking area side-by-side, resulting contact led to an instant retirement for Raoul who ended up in the tyre barriers.“We had the potential to take some very good points this weekend, the results don’t reflect that but our pace was great and, for me personally, I made some good steps forward”, said Raoul, “I decided to take more of a lead on set-up this weekend and it worked well. The end results are frustrating but I’m confident we can carry this forward to Assen next weekend and be competitive there.“The contact from [Callan] O’Keefe in race one was frustrating as the car felt great and we showed the pace we had by coming back through so well. In race two I made some places pretty quickly and I was annoyed to see the Safety Car as I’d pulled a five second gap behind me. We didn’t get what we should have from the races, but the pace is definitely there and that’s the main thing.”Formula Renault 2.0 NEC now heads directly to Assen in The Netherlands for the fifth race meeting of the 2014 season which will take place next weekend, 2nd/3rd August.Provisional 2014 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup Standings (after Rd9):15th Raoul Owens, 70pts