6th July 2008
DISAPPOINTING WEEKEND AT THE HUNGARORING

Budapest, Hungary – July 6, 2008. It was a tough weekend for Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy after he failed to repeat his impressive podium performance at the Hungaroring – one year on.

With the new-spec World Series machine, Fairuz has struggled to fine-tune the Dallara to his liking this year and despite a strong ninth-place start, he finished both races for Fortec Motorsport outside the top ten. Following the two practice days, overnight rain ahead of qualifying dramatically altered the grip on the tight and twisty Hungaroring track.

“I started ninth and made a great start to get eighth into the first corner but then I had a problem in the first couple of laps,” said Fairuz. “I just managed to tap another car with my front wing and that caused me to spin and I stalled the engine.”

Unfortunately Fairuz fell to the bottom of the field as he was trying to restart his car. He eventually managed to get away, but had lost 25 seconds in the process. The safety car then appeared because of an accident further up the field, which allowed Fairuz to close up the gap to his rivals. And on a circuit where it is notoriously difficult to overtake, the Fortec driver started to scythe his way through the field.

“I was struggling with a little bit of understeer, but I managed to overtake quite a few cars and the car had quite good pace towards the end and I was able to finish 12th,” he added.

In Sunday’s second encounter, Fairuz started 16th, but made a couple of last minute adjustments to his car as he exited the pits to take his place on the grid. Unfortunately the adjustments didn’t work and his Fortec machine started to suffer with oversteer.

“I’m finding the new World Series car has a very narrow window of performance and it’s very easy to get the set-up wrong by just changing the aero, or the ride-height by just a fraction. By the time of the pitstop I was struggling with the car and the oversteer problem just got worse and worse.”

Fairuz is planning to complete a shakedown test at Pembrey before the next race at the grand prix circuit of Nürburgring in Germany on August 30.

Results
World Series by Renault, Hungaroring, Feature Race:
1 Fabio Carbone, Ultimate Signature, 25 laps in 41m 01.764s
2 Julien Jousse, Tech 1 Racing, +1.891s
3 Miguel Molina, Prema Powerteam, +11.221s
14 Fairuz Fauzy, Fortec Motorsport, +38.872s

Sprint Race
1 Giedo Van Der Garde, P1 Motorsport, 25 laps in 44m 19.998s
2 Julien Jousse, Tech 1 Racing, +0.719s
3 Fabio Carbone, Ultimate Signature, +5.351s
12 Fairuz Fauzy, Fortec Motorsport, +27.422s