UK 2.0: Will Bratt Donington preview

DONINGTON TEST FRUSTRATES FRONT-RUNNER BRATT

General grip problems greatly compromised Will Bratt's potential during today's brace of official Formula Renault UK test sessions at Donington Park National Circuit, resulting in the category race winner ending the day a frustrated 14th overall on the timesheets.

While the entire Scorpio Motorsport team began today's test confident of a strong run ahead of the weekend's 11th and 12th rounds of the season at its local circuit, both Will and team-mate David Epton struggled to post out and out competitive times in their Apotex Pharmaceuticals-backed cars.

During the day's opening 65-minute session Will was reasonably satisfied with the eighth fastest time, just three 10ths of a second shy of the top two, and although posting his quickest time of the day in the afternoon with a lap of 1m 07.096 seconds (105.01mph), it unfortunately wasn't enough to lift him into the top 10.

"Setting the eighth fastest time this morning wasn't too bad, but even then I wasn't terribly happy with the car", commented a frustrated Will at the end of the day's test.

"We did manage to go a little bit quicker this afternoon but the general grip of the car was a problem, I just couldn't go into the corners at a high enough speed and we ended up losing a lot of time over the course of a lap.

"I could carry a certain amount of speed but if I tried to push the car to achieve the kind of time we should have been capable of it just wouldn't perform. We're a bit frustrated to end the test outside the top 10 and there's no doubt we need to make some major improvements to the set-up if we're to mount any kind of challenge this weekend."

Qualifying for round 11 of the Formula Renault UK season will take place at 10.35 on Saturday, 29th July, with round 12 qualifying scheduled to start at 15.10. Both races will follow on Sunday, 30th July, and will be broadcast live on Motors TV.

Round 11 is set to start Sunday's proceedings at 09.10 with the 12th round of the year timetabled to begin at 14.20. Motors TV is available to Sky Digital viewers through channel 413 and to NTL cable customers on channel 173.

-wb-