8 June 2008
MIXED FORTUNES FOR FAIRUZ AT SILVERSTONE
Silverstone, England – June 8 2008. It
was a weekend of mixed fortunes for Malaysian racer Fairuz
Fauzy at Silverstone – the venue for the latest
round of World Series by Renault which took place on
the legendary grand prix circuit in Northamptonshire.
But the Fortec Motorsport driver - competing in
his second World Series outing this year - was unfortunate
to get involved in a clash in the opening race of
the weekend, which forced him to start on the back
row for race two.
Fairuz was given a four-place grid penalty for a
collision with Marco Barba at the Vale section of
the track on the opening lap of the race. He then
suffered a puncture and after a clash with Guillaume
Moreau – ran off the road into retirement at
half distance.
Fairuz had qualified tenth and was expecting a strong
result after a promising run during free practice.
Unfortunately the team gambled on the opening race
being wet and fitted the 25-year-old with a softer
suspension set-up. “It was disappointing because
we thought the first race would be much wetter than
it actually was and because of that we suffered problems
with our left front tyre and it starting ‘graining.’ Because
of that we were a couple of seconds off the outright
pace.”
Fairuz continues: “Then entering the corner
just before Club there was an incident between myself
and Marco. I was defending the inside line for the
corner when we touched and I went across the grass.
It was a shame because I never intended to make contact – but
I suppose it was fair that we were both given a penalty
for the incident.”
The Fortec driver was able to resume, but his race
came to an end in front of the BRDC Clubhouse on
the 13th lap of the race. The retirement – plus
the penalty – dropped him to the back of the
field for Sunday’s second race. But then the
Fortec driver made tremendous progress passing five
cars on the opening lap! In sunny conditions, in
front of a large crowd, Fairuz drove brilliantly
to secure 15th place after 26 furious laps – having
taken eleven positions in total.
“It was difficult as this was my first time
with the new spec car at a proper high-speed circuit.
Plus this year the level of competition has risen
quite dramatically as in practice there was just
a second covering all the drivers from first to 12th
place. But the next race is Budapest and I’ve
got high hopes for that track after I scored a second
place finish there last year and I’m hoping
to go one better this year!”
The two days event had attracted more than 200,000
people at the circuit.
The Hungarian round of World Series by Renault takes
place on July 5-6.
Results
World Series by Renault, Silverstone, Feature
Race:
1 Robert Wickens, Carlin Motorsport, 26 laps in 42m 37.544s
2 Giedo Van Der Garde, P1 Motorsport, +0.695s
3 Salvador Duran, Interwetten.com Racing, +11.190s
15 Fairuz Fauzy, Fortec Motorsport, +42.718s
Sprint Race
1 Salvador Duran, Interwetten.com Racing, 26 laps in 41m 38.861s
2 Marcos Martinez, Pons Racing, +13.852s
3 Alvaro Barba, Prema Powerteam, +19.150s
DNF Fairuz Fauzy, Fortec Motorsport, 13 laps |
