David storms through the field overtaking 12 cars to finish 8th after a disasterous qualifying leaving him to start the race 20th.
Rounds 3 and 4 of the 2009 Michelin Formula Renault UK Championship took place at Thruxton, the fastest circuit on the BTCC calendar where the Formula Renault cars have an average speed of 120mph per lap.
First qualifying was on a wet but drying track and half way through the session David's team Manor decided to go for slicks on their cars, as they believe the track was nearly ready for dry tyres. During the second half of the session David struggled to get heat into his tyres and was unable to post a competitive time which left his in 25th position along with his team mates also in the 20s.
Qualifying two was another struggle as David and Manor decided to do two short runs instead of the normal one run. This however did not pay off as David was unable to improve on his time in the second run due to the tyres going off as well as traffic.
Race one was held on the Saturday due to noise restrictions on the Sunday. Starting 25th was always going to be a tough race but unfortunately David did not even get a chance to make up ground because he was caught up in someone elses accident at the start when David's team mate Thomas Hylkema came into contact with another car which then speared Hylkema into the side of David's car forcing him into the pitwall.
A disappointed David commented; "Today couldn't get much worse to be honest, Qualifying was really bad due to circumstances and to have a DNF in the first race was really disappointing but to be honest it all went wrong in qualifying. Even though there was nothing I could have done to avoid the accident and that I was just caught up in someone else's accident, we would have not be in the position if Qualifying had gone better."
A new day and race two was the new focus. Starting 20th David knew he was going to have to work hard to get up to the front. At the start of the race David made a great start making up two positions. He then made a brave move around the outside of the first corner to place himself 14th. Another place was gained on the opening lap when he past another car going into Club, the last corner. On the next few laps David made up more positions with some great late braking into the Complex. He then chased down 11th and got into his slipstream and lined him up for a move a Club, going into the corner David was alongside Dwyer but on the outside. David was super late on the brakes and was able to pass him on the outside and still able to get to the apex. A safety car was then brought out due to an incident at the Complex. When the safety car came in David made a good restart and dropped Dywer and was right behind his team Dean Smith, with all the cars dicing for position David lost the place to Dwyer but was able to make it up on the next lap with a brave move into Goodwood. Two laps later David caught back up with the group ahead and went for another move into Goodwood he was able to make up one position and get on the inside of Smith and David was able to get alongside him and then made another bold move this time into Church where Smith and McDonald where inches from touching. David then worked his way up the field and was at one point in seventh but was unable to hold off Blomstedt who slipstreamed David and had actually passed him before the corner, leaving McDonald defenceless. After a storming drive from 20th place on the grid David finished 8th showing once again his skilled race craft and race pace.
After the race McDonald said; "I really enjoyed that race, to come through the field like that was great and shows what I am capable of, I would like the see the on-board footage from the race because there were some great moves. I am a little annoyed that it was 8th we finished and not higher up because it was defiantly achievable because we seemed to have good race pace despite fighting all the time and suffering with a little oversteer through the Complex, so the key is getting qualifying right next time and hopefully we will be at the front."
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