Mtech Lite had a weekend to forget in the penultimate rounds of the 2012 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship at Donington Park.
Sean Walkinshaw led the way in qualifying, taking three top ten grid positions as he team-mates struggled to reproduce good midweek testing pace, but he was to endure bad luck in the races. After a clutch problem left him thirteenth in race one, he spun out of contention in race two, finishing 21st, before contact with a rival meant he ended the final race in the barriers.
This meant Mexican teenager Jorge Cevallos once again scored the team’s best race results, taking 13th and 12th in the final two races after being the victim of somebody else’s accident in race one
Joe Ghanem took 20th, 16th and 14th place finishes, while a strong performance for fellow rookie Shahan Sarkissian saw him take 15th in race two from 27th on the grid, added to 16th and 22nd place finishes in the other encounters.
Jorge Cevallos: “We messed up with the tyre choice in qualifying so I knew that some more top tens were unlikely this weekend. All I could do was my best and at least try to finish the races. The opening race incident was unfortunate but Iʼm happy to have finished races two and three and as top Mexican driver too!”
Joe Ghanem: “I feel frustrated. Weʼd tested earlier in the week and Iʼd finally found the sweet spot with the car and I felt confident for probably the first time this season. Then, for some reason we lost the set-up and I felt nervy again in the car.”
“I couldnʼt get the most out of the car and while I pushed in the races, when youʼre starting so far down the grid your performances unfortunately donʼt get noticed.”
Sean Walkinshaw: “Iʼm very disappointed, especially with the last race where the other guy simply drove into me to get past. Qualifying wasnʼt too bad for me. The clutch problem hampered me in race one though I did get the car back to P13 after dropping down to P22 which was good while the error on the opening lap of race two was mine.”
Shahan Sarkissian: “Iʼm pleased with my race performances, especially race two when I made up 12 positions over grid. Race three was good too and at one stage I was running P19 after starting 27th. However, my weekend like that of my teammates was largely shaped by our poor qualifying. I know though now that I have the race pace so I must build on that for the future.”
Les Jones, Team Manager MTECH Lite: “Shahanʼs race two recovery drive was a highlight but overall we unfortunately paid the price for a disappointing qualifying session. Really, apart from Sean the drivers just didnʼt get it together and as a consequence we never got out of the weekend a result that our testing pace earlier in the week had indicated each of them to be capable of.”
