Alice Powell scores points at a tricky Oulton Park meeting

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Thursday, 09 June 2011 08:40

Alice had her first race weekend in five weeks last weekend as the BTCC supporting Formula Renault championship moved to the Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park.

After getting knocked off through no fault of her own during both races at Thruxton, she was hoping for some good results to get her season back on track.

Alice ran into problems though, when in qualifying one, a red flag came out stopping the session just as she was about to set her fastest lap. This left her a disappointed tenth on the grid for race 1.

Qualifying two, went much better with Alice taking sixth for the race two grid. It would have been fifth but for a small mistake on her flying lap.

After the sunny conditions of Saturday, race day on Sunday proved to be a much wetter affair. Rain had been coming down heavily an hour before race one but it had stopped in the run up to the race, leaving a drying but still wet track. This left a very difficult call to make on tyres. Alice and the Manor team decided on slicks as the track seemed to be drying quickly.

She made a good start passing two cars before the first corner, moving into eighth position. However she was then forced onto a particularly wet bit of track, meaning she had to slow as she fought to keep control and several cars passed her. But Alice kept fighting and by the end of the race she had fought her way back up to ninth place.

For the second and final race Alice again made a good start off the line. She ran 6th for much of the race just ahead of her team mate Josh Hill. Hill got close on a few occasions but never looked close to getting past. On the final lap, Felix Serralies ahead of her made a mistake at Knickerbrook. Alice saw her chance and moved alongside but Serralies attempted to close the door, rapidally moving acorss and forcing Alice onto the grass. Alice fought to keep control and dropped back form fifth. She successfully held onto her position though and crossed the line in sixth.

Although Alice had a better weekend than Thruxton, things still hadn’t gone quite as well as she’d hoped;

“It was a tough weekend. I was definitely expecting better results, but I scored points this weekend which is good! However, we do have some work to do before Croft as putting a lap, with all sectors together is key. We hope for better results there. ” she commented.

Sarah Shaw, Alice’s engineer analysised Alice’s weekend;

“Alice had a frustrating weekend; in Q1 she was on a very good lap when the session was interrupted by a red flag - this meant that her lap time was not recorded and she had only done one other flying lap. The drivers who got out of the pitlane first were able to get one more flying lap before the chequered flag, and several of them improved their time, but unfortunately Alice was near the back of the queue and took the chequered flag at the end of her out lap. This meant she qualified an uncharacteristic 10th.

Q2 was better but a mistake on her best lap cost her nearly 2 tenths - she qualified 6th but had the potential to be much higher up the grid.

Both races took place in damp / drying conditions. Alice got good starts in both and drove really well, showing good race pace and pressuring the drivers in front. Oulton Park is a track where overtaking is very difficult even in bone dry conditions, but with the circuit still damp and slippery off line it was almost impossible. Still Alice made the best of the situation and brought home some valuable points”.

Alice finished the weekend ninth in the overall championship and fourth in the Graduate standings.
Alice’s next races are less than two weeks away at the North Yorkshire circuit of Croft. Alice will be hoping to return to running near the front of the field. By Marc Waller

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