A tough weekend for David at Croft Circuit during rounds 9 and 10 of the Formula Renault UK Championship.
David came away from Croft with a 7th place and a disappointing 23rd place after experiencing numerous problems throughout the weekend. In the first qualifying session David only managed to complete four laps before losing the rear of the car and going off at Clervaux. As a result the car was damaged on the left rear corner and sadly that brought a premature end to qualifying for David leaving him in 11th position. During the second qualifying traffic was a major problem and despite having the pace David could only manage to qualify 8th .
In race one on Saturday, David had a great start and had made up two positions going into the second corner following a bold move around the outside of Oakes and Stevens at Clervaux which moved him up to 9th. However going into the chicane a late lunge from a driver behind took off David's front wing and almost put him into the tyre barrier. Once again a needless move from an impetuous driver trying to win the race on the first lap spoiled the race for both. From that point on David struggled with no front down force and despite defending well during the race he had eventually to retire on the penultimate lap.
In race two on Sunday, David had another great start and defended well against an attempted move on the outside from Scott. David then moved up to 7th place when race leader, Calado's engine blew on lap one. For most of the race David struggled with an unbalanced car with braking in the slower corners also being an issue. Additionally the car experienced heavy vibrations throughout the race which may have resulted from the damage in race one. David maintained the gap from 8th place driver Scott throughout the race but was unable to challenge Blomstedt for 6th place.
Commenting on the weekend David said; "It has been a very disappointing weekend for me. We have really struggled since Friday which surprised me because I came here feeling confident of putting in a strong performance. Our pace here at the official test in May put us consistently up at the front so I think the warmer conditions over this weekend may have been a factor. Both qualifying sessions were tough mainly due to the traffic and it was very disappointing to lose my front wing in race one. Not being able to run normally in race one was a great disadvantage as we were not able to get the car set up properly for race two. However that's racing, I know we will bounce back from the weekend and two days testing at Snetterton will be perfect for that."
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