Frustrating Puncture Costs Owens Double Silverstone Top 10

Second year Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (NEC) racer Raoul Owens had something of a bittersweet outing on home ground at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend, 24th/25th May, with a puncture in round four preventing a deserved double top 10 result.

Having performed strongly in a rain-affected first race on Saturday afternoon to claim a season-best seventh place finish, from 10th on the grid, the 19-year-old from Pembury in Kent was on course to mount a top 10 challenge again during Sunday’s encounter but early contact ruined those hopes.

Making one of his customary strong starts to round three from the fifth row of the grid, Raoul rapidly moved into ninth position in the tricky conditions before then taking eighth place with a superb pass around the outside at Club Corner.

With earlier rain having made the track surface particularly challenging, the slightest mistake would be punished heavily but there were no such worries for the Mark Burdett Motorsport driver as he delivered an impressive performance.

Initially tagging onto the group of cars battling over fifth place, Raoul climbed into seventh position on lap seven and then had to focus on repelling the advancing cars behind. Unflustered, the Kent youngster kept his cool and lapped consistently well to hold seventh to the finish on lap 11.

Beginning round four on Sunday morning from a somewhat out-of-position 15th place on the grid, a result of the rain-impacted qualifying session, the Briton again made an excellent getaway to move up the order but it all went wrong on the run into Hangar Straight when Raoul became the innocent victim in a tangle between two other cars.

Closing up on the top 10 as he exited the very fast Maggotts and Becketts sequence of turns into Chapel Curve, Raoul was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as his rear wheel bore the brunt of contact from a spinning rival. Although able to limp back to the pits to have a fresh tyre fitted, the teenager’s race was ruined and he eventually took the flag a lap down in 20th position.

“Saturday was pretty good really, qualifying wasn’t what we wanted but just to go forward was the main thing and seventh wasn’t a bad finish – still good points which is what we need”, explained the Kent racer, “We struggled a bit with race pace, so we made some changes for Sunday and the car did feel better…until we got the puncture that is!

“I made a good start to race two, made up a couple of places through the first corner, and then as we came out onto the Hangar Straight [Levin] Amweg tried to go up the inside of another car where there was no space. They collided, touched each other and spun, and although I managed to just go around it my rear tyre must have been caught by one of them.”

Raoul added: “It was race over from there really, we pitted to change the tyre and then it was just a case of putting in some good laps and trying to salvage a point or two. The puncture destroyed the whole day really, I think we would definitely have been in the top 10 again without that.”

Hockenheim in Germany is the next destination on the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC calendar with the third event of the 2014 season taking place over the weekend 14th/15th June. Before then, though, Raoul will be back in action next weekend, 31st May/1st June, at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium where he will join the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 grid for rounds three and four of its season.