Magny-Cours, France – September 22, 2007. A strong
showing in practice and qualifying was sadly unfulfilled
on race day as Cram Competition’s Fairuz Fauzy retired
in the early stages of the latest World Series by Renault
3.5 race at Magny-Cours.
The Malaysian was caught out by the challenging wet conditions
at the Formula 1 circuit in central France, and he lost
control of his Renault-powered Dallara on the second lap
of the first race of the weekend.
In a race of attrition that saw as many as 16 cars fail
to finish, visibility was appalling as the pack threw up
great plumes of spray from the rain-soaked race track.
In the dramatic conditions, Fairuz took his tentative first
ever laps in the wet in a Formula Renault World Series
3.5 machine, but it wasn’t to last for long and it
was a disappointingly early end for the 22-year-old, especially
as he’d been on the pace at the Magny-Cours track
over the course of the whole weekend.
On Saturday morning in his qualifying group, Fairuz held
the second fastest time until he was eclipsed in the dying
seconds by Ben Hanley and demoted to third. During that
session the Nevers region of France was cool and overcast,
but as the race approached it started to spit with rain.
His Cram team gambled on running an intermediate set-up,
in the hope that the track would not be too wet. Unfortunately
it was the wrong call as the rain started to fall heavily
as the World Series by Renault cars began their formation
lap.
“Throughout practice and qualifying we had a really
good car and I was happy with the set-up,” said Fairuz. “We
had one small problem with the hydraulics in the gearbox
which was causing a very slight delay on downshifting,
but despite that we were just 0.2 seconds off the best
time, so we were relatively happy.”
“
We went with an intermediate set-up, because the track
was damp, and it was spitting, but not wet. But then
on the installation lap the rain suddenly fell really
hard and I remember saying to myself ‘oh my god’ as
it started to rain like it does in Malaysia… like
a monsoon!”
As the field sprinted away in the atrocious conditions,
Fairuz initially made a number of places, but with so much
aquaplaning on the straights, he was forced to lift off
the throttle to stop his car from spinning.
“Then on the second lap, approaching the chicane,
the spray was really bad,” added Fairuz. “I
could see nothing in front of me. Then I turned in as normal,
but before I knew it the back of the car suddenly snapped
around on the wet track and that was it – I spun
into retirement. There was nothing I could have done to
save it.” The Cram driver retired on the spot.
Britain’s Ben Hanley (Prema Powerteam) took his
first race win of the season in the wet and he was joined
on the podium by Davide Valsecchi (Epsilon Euskadi) and
Clivio Piccione (RC Motorsport).
Magny-Cours race one result
1 Ben Hanley (GBR) Prema, 23 laps in 42m 34.029s
2 Davide Valsecchi (FRA) Epsilon, +18.468s
3 Clivio Piccione (MON) RC Motorsport, +25.902s
R Fairuz Fauzy (MAL) Cram, +1 lap | 