China’s hottest young racing prospect Cheng Congfu (Oxford) surprised the Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin pre-season favourites during official testing at Thruxton Circuit Friday, as the countdown to the start of the season truly begins.
Under cloudy skies, the Manor Motorsport driver, who receives backing from McLaren International, set a best lap of 1m 09.943 seconds (121.26mph) at the 2.35-mile Hampshire venue this morning to top the timesheets by just 0.017 seconds.
Team AKA looked in impressive form with Swede Alex Storckenfeldt taking the second fastest time of 1m 09.960 seconds, while young team-mate James Jakes (Leeds) was third overall with a time just under three 10ths of a second shy of Cheng.
Even though he completed only approximately half the laps of his front-running rivals, Team JLR’s Stephen Simpson (Enfield, Middlesex) was certainly on the pace with the fourth fastest time of 1m 10.402 seconds.
Manor’s Oliver Jarvis (Burwell, Cambridgeshire) continued his solid pre-season preparations with the fifth fastest time, Fortec Motorsport’s Sebastian Hohenthal was sixth overall and Canadian driver Sean McIntosh was just a 100th of a second slower than the Swede in seventh place for Team Firstair.
Newly confirmed entries Emmet Queenan (Co. Roscommon, Ireland) and Matt Shawyer (Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire) ended the one and a half hour session in 17th and 21st positions for Team AKA and RSR Engineering respectively.
The official pre-race test ahead of the opening rounds of the 2005 Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin takes place at Donington Park in Leicestershire next Thursday, 7th April.
Round one qualifying is scheduled to begin at 10.35 on Saturday, 9th April, with round two qualifying set to commence at 15.10. Both races then take place on Sunday, 10th April – round one beginning at 09.50 and round two getting underway at 15.35.
Full testing times attached or available at www.msttiming.com
For all the latest Formula Renault UK Championship with Michelin news visit the official Renault Sport UK website www.renaultsport.co.uk built by Racecar
