Bangkok--22 Sep--Paul Ricard
The Paul Ricard High Tech Test Track hosts round 11 and 12 of the 2011 EuroCup series under the World Series by Renault last weekend (September17-18, 2011). It is owned by Formula One promoter Bernie Ecclestone and is characterised by its long Mistral straight (1.8 km) and elongated track design. The track is also unusual in that it is built on a plateau, and very flat. The length of the full track is around 5.8 km. The track offers today 167 possible configurations and because of this many Formula One teams use this track for testing.
With a clear blue sky and temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius the atmosphere at this very modern circuit is magical Sandy Stuvik, the 16 year old Thai racer sponsored by Singha Corporation, The Pizza Company, Dacon Inspection Services, RAAT and SAT started out on Friday's practice running very well, only 1.7 second seconds behind the fastest cars. For the second practice the team tested a new setting for Sandy, but he struggled with the new setting and saw his times drop.
Race 11
For Saturday morning qualification, the team again tried a new setting similar to his team mate, but again Sandy struggled to find confidence in the car and found himself qualified in 31st place, 2.6 seconds behind the pole sitter Poul Loup Chatin. The team again rallied with Sandy and reverted the car back to Sandy's base setting in time for the afternoon race.
The 35 car group all got off to a good start, Sandy was initially slow of the grid, but shot up past 9 cars on the opening lap alone. Then he started settling in and get used to the new car set up, clearly he was much more comfortable with this set up and was now running only 1 second down on his team mate, the closest he has been all weekend long. Sandy pushed a little too hard in turn 10 and lost a couple of places and in the end took the checkered flag in 23rd position.
Race 12
The qualifying round for the 12th race was ran at a wet and cold Paul Ricard circuit, in stark contrast to the warm and wonderful weather the previous day. Sandy was not overly happy with his pace, but managed to improve on yesterday's qualifying with a 27th place today.
Into the afternoon the rain abated, but the track was overcast and quite windy by the time the 12th race of the season got underway. This time Sandy had a good start and started overtaking cars in usual style. By the end of the first lap he had moved up 3 places and continued chasing down cars in front of him.
Coming into the last corner on lap 2 Sandy found himself in the middle of a 3 car sandwich and the inside car hooked his front wheel under Sandy's rear and Sandy got thrown up in the air and spectacularly rolled the car over until it again landed back on its wheels. The rear wing and several wheels were damaged and Sandy got a ride back to the circuit's medical center, before being given an all clear by the doctor.
The young Thai driver entered the championship as one the youngest and least experienced drivers and continues to learn and improve himself in preparation for next season, where certainly he will carry far more experience and be prepared to take on the competition in this very tough championship.
The final race in the 2011 EuroCup series will be at the Catalunya Circuit in Barcelona Spain in 3 weeks time, during 7-9 October 2011.
The Formula Renault EuroCup has been raced since 1991. It is organized under the “World Series by Renault” program and races on Formula One tracks across Europe. The 2011 season will start at Motorland in Spain and move on to Spa Francorchamps, then N?rburgring, Hugaroring, Silverstone, Paul Ricard, before ending back in Spain at Catalunya Circuit in October. The championship winner will secure a budget of Euro 500 000 to continue Formula Renault V6. Racing drivers who has passed Formula Renault Eurocup and is now in Formula One now are amongst other Pedro de la Rosa, Filipe Massa and Kamui Kobayashi.
Sandy’s Formula Renault Eurocup 2011 Racing Schedule:
Rounds 1 & 2: 16-17 April Motorland Spain
Rounds 3 & 4 30 April — 1 May Spa-Francorchamps Belgium
Rounds 5 & 6 18-19 June N?rburgring Germany
Rounds 7 & 8 2-3 July Hugaroring Hungary
Rounds 9 & 10 20-21 August Silverstone UK
Rounds 11 & 12 17-18 September Paul Ricard France
Rounds 13 & 14 8-9 October Catalunya Spain
Please see more details www.worldseriesbyrenault.com and http://www.interwettenracing.com/
For more information, please contact
Ms.Sasinee Aoucharoenpuck
PR Executive
Tel +66 38 880788 Fax +66 38 880727
Email :
[email protected]
Website: www.sandystuvik.com