Magny-Cours, France – September 23, 2007. After
disappointment in yesterday’s World Series by Renault
3.5 encounter at Magny-Cours, Fairuz Fauzy again failed
to finish in race two on Sunday. The Malaysian was running
in traffic when he made contact with Mexican driver Salvador
Duran and was forced into retirement.
Fairuz’ car flew into the air as his right rear
wheel made contact with the front of Duran’s car,
but because the incident was at a relatively low speed
corner, Fairuz was unhurt and his car suffered relatively
little damage. “I could see that the right front
suspension was damaged and that there was no point in continuing,” said
Fairuz.
After starting the second Magny-Cours race 28th on the
grid the Cram Competition driver made a lightening start
as he passed seven cars on the opening lap. But then Fairuz
came unstuck in the traffic and tangled with Duran while
the pair were battling for 19th position. “I gave
him space heading into the chicane, but he pushed me wide
and our wheels touched and I went into the air,” said
Fairuz. “That’s racing I suppose, but it’s
a shame that we couldn’t finish again.”
This season a non-finish in opening race of a World Series
by Renault meeting translates into a lowly grid slot for
race two and Fairuz was ruing the lack of a dedicated qualifying
session to determine the grid for the second race of the
weekend.
“Because we had a problem with the set-up of the
car in the rain yesterday, we went off – and that
has put us on the back foot for the rest of the weekend.
It’s seems harsh really, because I know that given
a second chance we had the pace to be competitive at Magny-Cours.
At least we can leave France knowing that we have a good
car for qualifying, but we just need a bit more luck in
the races.”
Despite a pointless weekend, Fairuz was pleased with his
first experience running a World Series car in wet weather
and understands that it was the intermediate set-up, which
was to blame for his weekend’s downturn in fortunes. “It
was a gamble yesterday, but I had never tested this car
in the wet before – so for the first time, to do
it in the race was quite an experience as I wasn’t
sure how the car would handle. Driving in monsoon-like
conditions hasn’t been a problem for me before and
I usually like it, but our car just wasn’t suited
to it.”
There was a home victory in the French round of Renault
World Series 3.5 as Guillaume Moreau (FRA) won the 27-lapper
ahead of Pons’ Miguel Molina. The series has just
two more meetings left this season, Estoril in Portugal
and a race in Barcelona, Spain, both at the end of October.
Magny-Cours race two result
1 Guillaume Moreau (FRA) KTR, 27 laps in 41m 04.975s
2 Miguel Molina (ESP) Pons, +6.482s
3 Julien Jousse (FRA) Tech 1, +7.831
R Fairuz Fauzy (MAL) Cram, +20 laps
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