News Article
Jordan King narrowly misses out on Brands Hatch podium
Manor Competition driver Jordan King put in a strong performance to claim fourth place in race one of the CERTINA Formula Renault 2.0 UK at Brands Hatch, before he later missed out on another podium after running second in race two.
With overtaking opportunities always at premium in Formula Renault, the majority of manoeuvres are normally made at the start of the race, but it was King who had to go on the defensive from the second row of the grid in the opening contest.
Dan Wells got a storming start from fifth place and immediately dived for the inside of King. 17-year-old King was alert to the attack however, and fended off the challenge as they ran down to Paddock Hill Bend for the first time.
The minor squabble allowed Oliver Rowland, Alex Lynn and Efthios Ellinas to briefly get away from King, but he was back in contention by the end of lap one as Lynn and Ellinas began their own fight for position.
King seemed poised to pounce as it looked ever more likely that Lynn and Ellinas could clash, particularly on a number of occasions when running through Druids Hairpin. Championship leader Lynn was merely trying to maintain position and by holding up Ellinas and King, he allowed his Fortec Motorsports team-mate Rowland to scamper nearly three seconds up the road.
After being caught up in a few unfortunate incidents during his rookie season of racing, King seemed content with fourth while always being ready to benefit from any potential mistakes ahead of him. The mistakes never came at the top order, but they did further down the field when Fortec team-mates Alex Walker and Ed Jones made contact at Paddock Hill. Jones was subsequently fired off into the gravel and out of the race, which led to the deployment of the Safety Car on the penultimate lap.
While the opportunity for King to fight for a podium was now back in the balance, so was the possibility of losing fourth place to Wells and company behind him. At the restart, King tucked in behind Ellinas and the duo set about pulling away from the gaggle of cars behind. As the chequered flag fell King had taken fourth – just a second behind Ellinas and with the top four covered by an incredibly close two seconds.
“To be honest we didn’t quite have the pace of those ahead of us,” said King. “It was more about maintaining position but we will try and look at why the other teams seem to have had a few tenths over us this weekend. It was a good race though and I am happy with the result. If we hadn’t have had so much bad luck earlier in the season I believe we could have been in a fight for third place in the championship. Hopefully we can achieve more of the same in race two later today.”
Race two turned into a bizarre affair after champion elect Lynn clearly made a jump start. King seemed to have got a perfect getaway and stormed down the inside of Ellinas into third as the field approached Paddock Hill Bend for the first time. Third became second when Lynn was called in for a drive through penalty, but one lap later it was King making his way through the pitlane. He returned to the action at the rear of the field and was out of contention for the remainder of the race. King eventually crossed the line and had to make do with setting the third fastest lap behind the two Fortec drivers.
The final two races of the CERTINA Formula Renault 2.0 UK series take place at Silverstone on the 14/15 October and the Jordan King website will keep you up to date throughout the weekend.
