Rowland leads Dan Wells and Felix Serralles (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photogrpahy)
After winning the morning's race Oliver Rowland made it a Saturday double, holding off a rapid looking Dan Wells for victory in the second Formula Renault UK Finals race at Snetterton.
Having started the first race from third to take the lead before the first corner Rowland could not repeat the same kind of getaway as he and pole sitter Josh Hill were wheel to wheel on the run into the right hander at Riches to start the lap of the 300 circuit.
The battle for the lead continued into Montreal with the two side-by-side, Rowland no on the inside of his Fortec Motorsport teammate according to the driver when he spoke to The Checkered Flag after the podium celebrations.
The contact continued at the following corner – Palmer. Geoff Uhrhane, Interwetten Racing's Melville McKee and Fortec drivers Ed Jones and Dan de Zille tangled. Jones, de Zille and McKee were able to rejoin, delayed, but Uhrhane's Atech Reid GP entry was stalled on the outside of the corner, triggering a safety car that was only just scrambled in time to collect Rowland as he completed the opening lap.
Dan Wells had taken second, Felix Serralles and Thomas Jager – after starting seventh -where third and fourth ahead of Daniil Kvyat. Once the safety car returned to the pit lane Kvyat took fourth from Jager, the Austrian starting to slide back down the field.
A mistake on lap six dropped him out of the top ten and his miserable race was completed by spinning at Oggies on the final lap – dejected he left the car on the edge of the track.
Kvyat now set about the task of catching the top three, the top four eventually squeezing into less two seconds as he pressured Serrelles – albeit unsuccessfully for third. The pressure applied to the Puerto Rico driver in the closing laps allowed Wells to turn his attention to taking the race lead.
2011 BARC series runner-up Josh Webster finished fifth, ahead of Stefan Wackerbauer. Jordan King made up for some his race one disappointment with a seventh place. Jake Dennis, Nick McBride and Hector Hurst completed the top ten.
Also disappointed – not to mention angry – at the result of his race was James Fletcher. After having to give up BARC class pole for the first race after a spin on the warm-up lap, he fell to fourth in class on the opening lap.
After a four lap fight with Ivan Taranov Fletcher wrestled third away from the Antel Motorsport fielded Russian, but a mistake at Palmer on lap ten left his MGR Motorsport car stranded. The Formula Jedi runner-up was obviously disgusted with his retirement, throwing his gloves into the cockpit before walking away. After emphasising the importance of finishing race one to claim as many points as possible race two ended in a DNF.
That mistake was made all the more costly from a championship point of view by Archie Hamilton taking a second win of the day – this one untroubled compared to his first, though Victor Jiminez remained in close attendance a second behind the Fortec driver, though never able to mount a challenge for the win.
The Protyre Formula Renault UK Finals continue tomorrow (Sunday) with another day of qualifying followed by two races.
