Driver Database News

Menasheh Idafar underlined his burgeoning potential during officially timed Formula Renault UK Winter Championship testing at Snetterton in Norfolk today, Friday, 30th October, by concluding the outing an excellent fourth fastest on combined times.

In the last of today’s 40-minute sessions this afternoon, the 18-year-old produced a quickest lap of 1m04.631 seconds (108.72mph) on his final run to go second overall and the fastest of the Manor Competition drivers with around three minutes to go.

With team-mate David McDonald and fellow front-runner Harry Tincknell – 2009 Formula Renault UK Graduate Cup Winner – just edging ahead by fractions of a second at the finish though, Menasheh slipped to fourth fastest but the end result was still extremely impressive, just 0.270 seconds shy of the outright pace.

During this morning’s opening session, the Gulf Computer Services and Ortolan-backed driver was seventh on the timesheets with a time of 1m07.765 seconds (103.69mph). Then, in the second period, he improved to a superb third quickest, having been at the head of the times with just a few minutes remaining thanks to a lap of 1m05.151 seconds (107.85mph).

Happy with his performance today, Menasheh commented: “My fastest lap in the last session could have been better as I made a small mistake but I’m very happy to be in the top four, especially as we only used one set of new tyres at the end. The car is good and I’m really enjoying it, now I’m looking forward to the start of the Winter Championship tomorrow.”

Qualifying for the opening two races of the 2009 Formula Renault UK Winter Championship will take place at 09.30 tomorrow, Saturday, 31st October, at Snetterton with round one scheduled to get underway at approximately 10.50. The second 15-lap encounter will follow at around 13.30.

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs brought his 2009 racing campaign to a close in the final rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship at Motorland Aragon at the weekend. The 18 year-old, fresh from a successful F3 test last week, went straight to Spain for the double-header event with the intention of taking fourth in the standings.

On arrival at the new circuit Adrian went straight into two free practice sessions in which the BRDC Rising was left disappointed by the pace. Despite winding up fourth quickest in the first session, his times were set on new tyres with his rivals on old, leaving the Motopark Academy team work to do before qualifying.

This they did to good effect however, the Tonbridge teenager bouncing back to form with the fourth fastest time in his group just over a tenth off pole. In the combined Superpole shootout to determine the grid for race one, Adrian against set the fourth fastest lap, two places ahead of his chief rival Miki Monras.

Saturday’s opening race proved largely uneventful for Adrian. A good start allowed him to hold position but by the end of the opening lap he’d dropped to seventh. With one eye on the whereabouts of Monras behind, Adrian drove a steady mid-part of the race concentrating on keeping a solid sixth place but as the race neared the end, the former double T-Cars champion upped his pace to stretch the gap to Monras.

In Sunday’s race two, Adrian again started from fourth, and the fraught race proved nail-biting right to the flag. With the championship title still very much at stake between three drivers, including Adrian’s team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, team tactics were much in evidence over the course of the race.

But for Adrian, the battle for fourth was very much his target, entering the race on equal points with Monras. At the start, he had the advantage with a car in between them as the race progressed.

The battle for the race lead was fought out by six drivers, with the lead changing hands several times over the race distance. Throughout Adrian enjoyed a battle with Jean Eric Vergne, the pair swapping places several times.

On the penultimate lap, with his championship position secured, Adrian upped his pace to pass Kevin Magnussen and cross the line fourth, to give him that position in the points standings.

Adrian will now stay in Spain to take part in the official World Series by Renault tests which take place on Wednesday, when he will drive a Comtec Racing car.

Race winning team MP Motorsport is delighted to confirm it will once again focus its participation in Eurocup Formula Renault and the Northern European Cup in 2010 having ordered three brand new cars from Renault Sport Technologies.

With Formula Renault championships across the world replacing the hugely successful FR 2.0 Tatuus chassis with the freshly designed Barrazi-Epsilon car from next year, MP Motorsport is already busy preparing for its introduction with an intensive winter testing programme throughout Europe.

The Dutch team has enjoyed good success in recent events with podium finishes at Germany’s Nurburgring and in the Formula Renault NEC race meeting at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Now, the Oudenbosch-based squad is keen to hear from interested drivers who would like to discuss testing opportunities and also the 2010 race programme in two of the continent’s most competitive one-make single-seater championships. Currently, MP Motorsport has lodged three entries for Eurocup and three more for the NEC.

“We’re very keen to hear from any drivers interested in testing with us in Europe over the winter months, we have an intensive programme in place with a lot of running planned in Spain and Portugal to take advantage of the warmer weather”, said MP Motorsport’s Sander Dorsman.

“It’s been a good season for MP Motorsport. We’ve had some great success with several podium finishes and now we’re looking forward to the last Eurocup race of the season in Spain at the end of the month before embarking on our winter testing schedule.”

Next on the calendar for MP motorsport is the final Eurocup Formula Renault race meeting of the season which will take place at Motorland Aragon in Spain over the weekend 24th/25th October.

To get in touch with the team regarding testing opportunities and race drives in 2010, please contact Sander Dorsman on 0031 (0) 6516 70158 or by email through sander@mpmotorsport.nl

Antonio Felix da Costa was again in evidence this weekend at Le Mans on the competitive Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup. The Portuguese driver got two podiums and expanded his advantage in the leadership of the Eurocup, having now 7 more points than the Frenchman Jean Eric Vergne, who is now second on the championship and 14 more points than the Spanish Albert Costa (ranked third).

After the third place achieved in the first race and with only two race meetings remaining to the end of the season, Felix da Costa knew he would have to attack strongly in the race in order to consolidate his leadership on the Eurocup: “Being fourth on the grid, and having my main opponents on the first row I knew that I had to attack and make them pressure”, said the young Portuguese driver with only 17 years old, which was a protagonist of an excellent start, moving immediately to third position, behind the Spanish Albert Costa: “I started to make pressure on Albert, forcing him to make a mistake which happened after some laps. After this I was quick but Vergne was already a bit far away and unfortunately it was too late to reach him, “continued Antonio Felix da Costa who made the fastest of the race and completed the second race in second position.

The results of this weekend allowed Antonio Félix da Costa to open the gap on the leadership of the European Championship: “I came to Le Mans with 4 points of advantage to Albert Costa and now I have 7 points to the second and 14 to the third. Together with my team Motopark and especially with my engineer Dennis Lawyer, we did an excellent work, which gave me a extremely competitive car. However, our weakness is still the qualifying and on both races starting 4th on the grid didn’t allows us to fight for the win. I am aware of that situation and we have to move at this point, “concluded driver managed by Sowhat Management.

The next race of the season for Antonio Felix da Costa is at Assen (Holland) – 7/8 Uugust for the NEC (North European Championship), where he is also leading. This year on both championships (Eurocup and NEC) Antonio achieved a total of 12 podiums in 16 races, 5 of them on the top of the podium. A brilliant performance from the 17 year old driver, which is closer to get both titles only on his second year of car racing.

Classification of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 after Le Mans: 1st António Félix da Costa, 97 pontos; 2nd Jean Eric Vergne, 90 pts; 3rd Albert Costa, 83 pts….

Next race: Nurburgring – 19 & 20 September.

Rising British racer Adrian Quaife-Hobbs finished a fighting sixth in the second Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship race at Le Mans this weekend, despite falling foul of strict marshalling in qualifying which meant he started 15^th and 14^th respectively for the two races.

The 18 year-old had set a cracking pace in testing and, in his group qualifying on Saturday, easily progressed through to the Superpole shoot out. However he was adjudged to have cut the corner on one of his warm-up laps and subsequently penalised by deleting his fastest race lap. His first flying lap was aborted after coming across a yellow flag sector, his sector one time indicating he could have been in the top three.

On his next lap, Adrian posted the third quickest time, which was later deleted, leaving Adrian with no time to optimise the tyre grip.  Therefore with his tyres past their best, the BRDC Rising Star wound up with the 15^th and 14^th quickest times for the two races.

In the opening race Adrian made a good start to hold position but at the turn one chicane was swamped when many of his rivals bypassed it, dropping Adrian further down the field. A stirring drive allowed Adrian to move up through the order, 18^th by the end of the opening lap, and thereafter he made up places to cross the line 14^th.

Race two took place on Sunday and proved largely successful for the Tonbridge driver after a perfect start off the line allowed him to gain three places into the first corner. At the chicane, Adrian held the place and by the completion of the opening lap had gained another three places.

An incident on the opening lap required the safety car to be deployed, bunching up the pack, but at the restart allowed Adrian to entertain a fraught battle with Miki Monras for seventh.  The Spaniard vigorously defended Adrian’s advances, but two laps from home Adrian made a daring move round the outside at the chicane to move ahead and set after the three-way battle for third.

With just two laps remaining however, despite Adrian’s best efforts in closing the gap, he just missed out on fifth, crossing the line 0.06secs adrift.

“After a good start to the weekend it was very frustrating to come away with just sixth place however once again we underlined our pace right from the start. I ruined my chances in the race having to lose my quickest time as the tyres only really last a couple of laps and with the yellow flag and then losing third, it was always going to be a struggle.

“I’m not sure where I was supposed to have cut the corner which also meant I had to drive extra careful everywhere and wasn’t able to push as hard as I’d have liked.  Despite that I still posted the third quickest time which was pretty good.

“In the second race had the safety car not been out and wasted effectively six racing laps, my overtaking opportunities were also reduced otherwise I think I could have probably got onto the podium as I was in the battle for third place.”

Adrian’s next race will be at Assen in the Netherlands over the weekend of 8/9 August for the next rounds of the Formula Renault 2.0 North European Cup.

Results of race one – 17 laps
1 Jean Eric Vergne SG Formula 27:33.682
2 Albert Costa Epsilon Euskadi 27:34.089
3 Antonio Felix Da Costa Motopark Academy 27:36.265
4 Arthur Pic SG Formula 27:44.230
5 Miki Monras SG Formula 27:45.251
6 Nathanaël Berthon Epsilon Euskadi 27:45.427
14 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Motopark Academy 27:59.286

Results of race two – 15 laps
1 Jean Eric Vergne SG Formula 26:41.154
2 Antonio Felix Da Costa Motopark Academy 26:42.756
3 Kevin Magnussen Motopark Academy 26:47.226
4 Nathanaël Berthon Epsilon Euskadi 26:47.747
5 Ramez Azzam SG Formula 26:50.863
6 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Motopark Academy 26:50.972

Championship points after ten rounds: 1. Antonio Felix Da Costa 97, 2. Jean Eric Vergne 90, Albert Costa 83, 4. Miki Monras 65, 5. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs 58, 6. Nathanaël Berthon 52.