Mark Burdett Motorsport racer Rahul Raj Mayer made more progress during the latest outing for the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup at Silverstone over the weekend, 23rd/24th May, but his points scoring potential was compromised by an unfortunate excursion in qualifying.
Despite the costly trip through the gravel though in the first of the two grid-determining sessions on Friday, 22nd May, the category rookie went on to claim his second points finish in as many events in race two, round four, on Sunday with a battling top 20 result in a Safety Car affected encounter.
“Rahul’s definitely making progress, he didn’t do any testing in the big gap between Monza and Silverstone so his time in the car compared to the others has been very limited – he just needs more time behind the wheel really”, said team principal Mark Burdett.
“He gained more and more confidence with every lap this weekend, in race two his pace was good and he set his best lap time of the weekend right near the end. He’s learning more about looking after the tyres, getting the most from them, and it’s just a shame we didn’t have more laps at racing speed. We’ve only got two weeks now until Red Bull Ring where the aim is to keep moving forward.”
Hopes of qualifying inside the top 20 during the first of the two back-to-back sessions unfortunately went awry for the 18-year-old with his excursion off the track. His car did, though, make it back to the pits where the Mark Burdett Motorsport mechanics quickly got to work to make repairs which enabled Mayer to take part in the subsequent round four session just minutes later.
Starting round three on Saturday from the 10th row of the grid, Mayer made a good launch and was able to climb up into 18th position during an especially busy opening lap before being nudged back down to 21st place.
Running in a tight group of cars during the early going, the Malaysian managed to break back into the top 20 on lap three but after a moment on the subsequent tour he dropped down to 23rd place where he remained to the conclusion on lap 13.
Sunday’s race duration was heavily impacted by the intervention of the Safety Car early on, meaning only roughly half the allotted time was completed at full speed. Beginning the contest 23rd on the grid, Mayer made a good getaway and was able to avoid a tangle at Copse to climb into 21st position prior to the lengthy cautionary period which was required to clear away the stricken cars.
When racing finally resumed with less than 12 minutes left, Mayer was able to break into the top 20 and remained sandwiched between Bartlomiej Mirecki and Henrique Chaves for the next couple of laps. On lap eight, Mayer was able to get ahead of Mirecki but the recovering Chaves managed to leapfrog both, meaning the Malaysian still held 20th position where he stayed to the flag.
“Rahul is now based in the UK full-time so we’ll be able to get more of a testing programme together in the coming weeks, it’s that extra time on track he needs”, added Burdett, “He’s working very well with our driver coach Robbie Kerr and we’re confident of more steps forward at the next round.”
Next on the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC schedule is a visit to the Red Bull Ring in Austria over the weekend 5th/6th June for rounds five, six and seven where the Lincolnshire based team is aiming to also field its second FR 2.0 car.
Provisional 2015 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Driver Standings (after Rd4): 27th Rahul Raj Mayer, 4pts
Provisional 2015 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Team Standings (after Rd4): 10th Mark Burdett Motorsport, 4pts
