Motorsport
King impresses at Spa

Buy photos » Jordan King in action at Spa. Picture courtesy of Dutch Photo Agency. (s)

JORDAN KING banished the disappointment of a luckless opening round in the Formula Renault Eurocup at Motorland Aragón by scything his way past his adversaries to gain a staggering 15 positions and open his points account in style in the second outing at Spa-Francorchamps.

Having barely completed a racing lap in the Spanish curtain-raiser after finding himself on the receiving end of rivals’ errors, the talented young Stoneleigh single-seater ace headed to legendary Belgian Grand Prix venue Spa with the primary objective of belatedly kick-starting his challenge with a solid points-scoring haul.

King was frustrated in his efforts to post a representative time in Saturday’s yellow flag-punctuated qualifying session, leaving him a lowly 22nd on the grid for the opening encounter but he recovered well in the opening race.

King said: “I got probably the best start of my life to gain about six places. I was then alongside another driver going up through Eau Rouge, but I don’t think he saw me because he turned in and squeezed me to the edge of the track and onto the grass.

“I hit the brakes to avoid an accident, but that caused me to lock up and cost me all my momentum down the following straight.

“Knowing that I would need to overtake well, before the race, my team Manor MP Motorsport had made a great call with the wing settings on my car, which gave me a lot of top speed and enabled me to breeze past people down the straights.

“So long as I could hold onto them through the corners and stay in their tow long enough, I knew I’d always have a great chance of getting past.

“The car felt good and the strategy worked perfectly, allowing me to progress as far as seventh by the end.

“We were all really pleased with that given where we had started, and with just a couple more laps, I’m convinced we could have finished inside the top five.”

Taking the chequered flag less than eight seconds adrift of the winner and best-placed of the nine Brits in the 42-strong Eurocup field, it was a superb effort, but in a wet qualifying session the next day, traffic and timing saw King slip helplessly down the order right at the close, meaning he would begin Sunday’s contest just 16th.

Eighteen-year-old King said: “I gained a few spots at the start, but then the race was stopped due to a massive crash.

“After the re-start, conditions were so bad that I literally couldn’t see anything. With 11 cars in front of me all throwing up spray, visibility was near non-existent.

“I’ve never raced in anything like it before. By the time I had settled into a rhythm, caught the group ahead and was lining up to attack, the race was red-flagged again!

“I reckon we could probably have fought our way into the top ten had it run to its full length, but on the plus side, at least we finished when a lot of drivers didn’t.”

With only six racing laps completed in the torrential conditions, to place 12th was something of a minor triumph in itself, and having vaulted from nowhere in the title standings into the top 15 – just six points shy of the top ten – King admits he will approach the following round at the Nurburgring in Germany with justifiable optimism.

The Princethorpe College student added: “Overall, it was a positive weekend. We’ve got ourselves off the mark in the championship, and Saturday’s race was one of the most enjoyable of my career.

“We proved we’ve got the speed, we learnt a lot and now I’m just looking forward to progressing even further at the Nurburgring.”

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