Estoril, Portugal – October, 21 2007. Cram Competition’s
Fairuz Fauzy was delighted to spray the celebratory champagne
after he took his third podium of the season with a terrific
third place finish in the latest World Series Formula Renault
3.5 race at Estoril, in Portugal today.
The Malaysian racer heads to the final meeting of the
year in Barcelona next weekend full of confidence following
two strong results on the Iberian Peninsula with his podium,
adding to his eighth place from Saturday.
“This is such a great result for myself and all
the Cram team,” said Fairuz. “I’m absolutely
delighted, this is a fantastic culmination of a weekend
of hard work. We’ve been on the pace at Estoril,
particularly in the collective testing on Thursday and
Friday and we had a car that was capable of a very strong
result. We’ve done that, got more points on the board
and everybody is looking forward to the season finale for
another top result.”
After a storming start, Fairuz spent the majority of the
27 laps at the former grand prix circuit in third place,
following ultimate winner Milos Pavlovic and Clivio Piccione.
In the early stages, Fairuz conserved his tyres while the
top two scrapped for the lead. Then at mid-distance he
started to put pressure on Piccione ahead of him. But the
Monegasque started to block Fairuz and was shown a ‘driving
standards’ warning flag by the stewards of the meeting.
“He blocked me on the straight so I backed off,
then I had another chance to overtake him, but he squeezed
me again. That’s when the team told me he had been
shown a warning flag,” explained Fairuz. “I
was about attack again when the car picked up a vibration.
It wasn’t because I had flat-spotted the tyre under
braking, but it might have been a problem with the wheel
balance. Anyway, after that I wasn’t so confident
attacking with the car, so decided it was better to ensure
I finished – because it was a podium position.”
After 40 minutes of racing, Fairuz finished the 27 laps
just six seconds behind the winner and just one second
behind Piccione. It was a measured drive from the Cram
ace who’s got his sights aimed at another podium
in a week’s time in Barcelona, Spain. “It’s
been a very strong weekend and it’s once again proved
we have the speed to be competitive in the World Series
by Renault. I can’t wait to get racing again next
weekend!”
Results – Estoril
Race one
1 Miguel Molina (Pons Racing) 27 laps in 40m 36.310s
2 Julien Jousse (Tech 1 Racing) +10.730s
3 Alvaro Barba (Draco Racing) +16.669s
8 Fairuz Fauzy (Cram Competition) +25.109s
Race two
1 Milos Pavlovic (Draco Racing) 27 laps in 40m 16.424s
2 Clivio Piccione (RC Motorsport) +5.114s
3 Fairuz Fauzy (Cram Competition) +6.261s
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