Donington Park, England – September
8, 2007. Despite heading for a
podium after a strong qualifying performance, Fairuz Fauzy
unfortunately retired from Saturday's opening World Series
by Renault
3.5 race at Donington Park.
The Malaysian made a solid start from the front row -
grabbing second
place as he entered Redgate for the first time - behind
Alvaro
Parente. But within a lap the field was slowed after the
safety car
was deployed following a three-car crash at the Craner
Curves
involving Clivio Piccione, Michael Herck and Charlie Kimball.
At the restart Fairuz chased after leader Parente, but
then made an
early strategic call to come into the pits for fresh rubber,
just
changing the front two tyres. The Cram driver then resumed
the race
13th, but climbed through the field as his rivals ahead
of him made
their stops.
On the 18th lap Fairuz had moved back into a podium position,
but
fourth placed Bertrand Baguette managed to out-brake the
Cram driver
into the Melbourne hairpin. A quick-thinking Fairuz cut
back through
on the inside to reclaim third place from the Frenchman.
Unfortunately while trying to hold Baguette back, Fairuz
suffered with
a moment of oversteer exiting the Old Hairpin. He speared
into the
barriers and luckily stepped out of the car unhurt.
"It was a really disappointing day, after such a
promising performance
in qualifying," said Fairuz. "Unfortunately during
the safety car
period, my tyres cooled down really quickly, then after
the pit stop,
I had a problem with the balance of the car." After
claiming four championship points earlier in the morning,
it was
a disappointment that Fairuz could not add to his points
tally. But by
failing to finish, it forces Fairuz to start Sunday's second
race in a
lowly position. "I had a big problem with graining
on my rear tyres
and it was difficult to push the car because I didn't have
any
traction. I was suffering with massive oversteer and was
pushing hard,
but just lost the back of the car."
When Fairuz crashed he also collected the stationary car
of Xavier
Maassen (who had retired earlier in the race) and the two
cars meant
the safety car was recalled to clear up the mess. "I
have to say the
crowd support was fantastic," added the 24-year-old. "When
I got out
of the car, the crowd were cheering me, and I signed lots
of
autographs, it's a really good atmosphere racing here at
Donington
Park, but unfortunately, sometimes you gain, other times
you lose in
motor racing."
The second World Series by Renault
race takes place at 1300 (local
time) on Sunday.
Race one result - Donington Park:
1 Alvaro Barba (ESP), Draco, 29 laps in 46m 38.919s
2 Julien Jousse (FRA), Tech 1, +0.257s
3 Bertrand Baguette (BEL), KTR, +1.668s
R Fairuz Fauzy (MAL), Cram Competition, +19 laps | 