Top Five Finish For Owens On Formula Renault Alps Debut
Raoul Owens made an expectedly impressive debut in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend, 7th/8th June, by racing to a highly competitive top five finish in the second encounter on Sunday and lapping just 0.046 seconds shy of podium pace.
The 19-year-old, who more regularly competes in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup where he is currently ninth in the standings, contested the Alps event one week on from also racing at Spa in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series.
At the wheel of his usual Mark Burdett Motorsport car, Raoul began the weekend strongly with the eighth fastest time in testing before going on to lap a fantastic third fastest in his qualifying session with a time of 2m19.880 seconds (180.3 km/h). With the ‘Group B’ session ultimately the slower of the two, this meant the Briton lined up sixth on the 32 car grid for his maiden race in the series.
Maintaining position on the opening lap, the Pembury driver was poised to attack on the second tour but after being nudged from behind on Kemmel Straight – while travelling at 250 km/h – he was powerless to prevent a spin into retirement. Fortunately, particularly considering the speed of the accident, his FR 2.0 emerged relatively intact.
Beginning Sunday morning’s race from ninth on the grid, Raoul made an excellent start and quickly worked his way into the top six. Although bumped back to seventh on lap two by Simon Gachet, while dicing with Charles LeClerc, the Bright Spark Ventures-backed driver remained in close contact and on the fifth tour he moved back into the top six.
During the second half of the race Raoul ran in a lonely sixth although this became fifth position midway through lap nine when fellow Briton Seb Morris encountered throttle problems. As Ben Barnicoat and LeClerc fought over the final podium place, Raoul was able to close back in but had to settle for fifth at the flag.
“This weekend was very up and down, but it ended on a good note”, reflected Raoul, “Qualifying wasn’t amazing but certainly an improvement from last weekend [in Eurocup Formula Renault], it gave me much more of a fighting chance.
“In race one, I got a good start from sixth and was challenging for third on the Kemmel Straight when I was hit from behind and had too much damage to continue which was a shame. Race two was better, I got a good start and made up a couple of places from ninth and worked my way through to fifth without any problems even though it was very close.”
He added: “I pulled a gap from the car behind and pulled away, but the car in front of me was a little out of reach – it was a good result all the same. It was a big improvement from last weekend and certainly positive progress for myself and the team. We are really looking forward to Hockenheim next weekend now.”
After three back-to-back weekends of racing, Raoul continues his incredibly busy month with a return to action in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup next weekend, 14th/15th June, at Hockenheim in Germany.
