Budapest, Hungary – July 14, 2007. Fairuz Fauzy scored
his best result of the season with a fantastic second place
for the Cram Competition team at the Hungaroring on Saturday.
In the feature race for the latest round of the Formula
World Series by Renault 3.5, the Malaysian finished just
half a second behind Filipe Albuquerque at the chequered
flag.
"
This is a really great result for me and for the whole
Cram team," said a delighted Fairuz. "We've been
strong all weekend and in the race the car was perfect.
It's fantastic after such a long break out of the car to
be so competitive that I couldn't ask for any more!"
After an impressive qualifying session at the notorious
dusty, twisty Hungaroring - Fairuz started on the second
row of the grid. Then as the green lights emerged at the
start he managed to avoid the incidents in the first couple
of corners to retain his fourth place at
the end of the first lap. However the safety car was deployed
to clear up the mess around the circuit.
After a number of laps behind the safety car, it peeled
in at the end of lap five and two laps after that Cram
Competition gambled on bringing Fairuz into the pits for
an early stop.
"
We made the decision to come in sooner rather than later,
but as I was entering the pits I got distracted by a
problem on my radio. There was a lot of noise which broke
my concentration," admitted Fairuz. "Thankfully
the time I lost was made up by the brilliant pit work
by the crew."
The Cram mechanics were able to change both of Fairuz's
front tyres in four seconds to ensure he returned to
the race at the sharp end of the field.
After the 24-year-old was back on track he gradually made
his way to the front as his rivals were also forced to
make their mandatory stops. Suddenly up to second place,
Fairuz saw the leader emerge from the pits ahead of him.
"I came onto the main straight and saw Filipe and
I knew that was the fight for the lead. I tried as hard
as I could to overtake, but it is just so hard to pass
at the Hungaroring," admitted the Malaysian.
In the closing stages of the 25-lap encounter there was
another, short, safety car period, but with two laps remaining
- green flag racing resumed. Behind Fairuz, Briton Ben
Hanley was pushing hard for second place.
"It was difficult to know what to do, whether I should
risk challenging for the lead, or whether I should maintain
the second position and defend from Hanley for my strongest
result of the year.
As it happened I maintained the gap and held on to second," said
a relieved Fairuz. "This has been such a great week
for me, with the birth of my son last weekend and now the
best result of the year for me in World Series."
For the sprint race in the Hungary double-header, Fairuz
starts tomorrow's [Sunday's] race in ninth position for
the reverse grid format.
Podium result, Hungaroring
1 Filipe ALBUQUERQUE EPSILON 25laps 46m 42.199s
2 Fairuz FAUZY CRAM 25laps +0.552s
3 Ben HANLEY PREMA 25laps +1.335s
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