MP Motorsport and driver Daniel De Jong came within two laps of securing their maiden podium finish in Auto GP at only their second event in the series. It was a busy weekend for the Dutch team at Oschersleben, with it also contesting the Formula Renault 2.0 North European Cup races.
After starting 11th for the first race, the team brought De Jong in early for his mandatory pitstop, allowing him to climb up to sixth by the finish.
Starting from third for the second race courtesy of the reverse grid, De Jong made a good start to move up into second place past Pasquale di Sabatino. From here he applied constant pressure on leader Giovanni Venturini, nearly passing the Italian on lap 11.
Late in the race rain began to fall, which led to De Jong making an error that dropped him from second to seventh just two laps from the end.
“We're obviously disappointed, for Daniel especially, not to have finished on the podium in race two as he did a really fantastic job,” said team principal Sander Dorsman. “In the first race we made the right call to pit early, that worked out really well, and then in race two he drove impressively in some tough conditions. It's a real shame there was a slight mistake, I think we all deserved second place.”
In Formula Renault, rising British star Jordan King made his debut for the team in his first appearance in the NEC, and achieved a sixth place finish in the second of the two races.
Starting from the fourth row of the grid for the first race, Formula Renault UK regular King slipped back as far as 15th at the start, before working his way back through the field to secure a top eight finish.
Jordan King enjoyed a good debut in Formula Renault NEC, driving for MP Motorsport - Photo Credit: Chris Schotanus/Essay Produkties
The team's regular drivers Karl-Oscar Liiv and Alexey Chuklin had mixed fortunes, with Liiv retiring from the first race before finishing ninth in the second race. Chuklin meanwhile finished the two races in 13th and 16th.
“All three guys did a good job in Formula Renault this weekend,” said Dorsman. “Jordan was very strong on his debut with us and Karl-Oscar and Alexey both did well, although Karl-Oscar had some bad luck of course in the first race. It's been a strong weekend for the team in both Auto GP and Formula Renault 2.0 NEC, we're quite happy with how everything turned out in the end.”
