Max Defourny ended the season with his eleventh visit to the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series podium last Sunday, with the results at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya confirming his place in fourth place in the overall standings.
The R-ace GP driver did not enjoy the best of qualifying sessions in Spain, and ultimately his race results reflected this, with a fifth place finish coming in race one, which was the best he could do as he shadowed Sacha Fenestraz to the chequered flag.
“I managed to overtake in the first two laps, so I was running P5,” said Defourny. “After that, I couldn’t move up any higher, even though I was pushing as much as I could.
“My tyres started to wear down in the last part of the race, so I couldn’t keep P5 and got overtaken on the last lap. This is not a position I can be satisfied with, but unfortunately, I couldn’t do more having had a bad qualifying.”
Defourny was unfortunately part of the initial clash at turn two that caused a chain reaction and a thirteen-car crash, with the Belgian clashing with Gabriel Aubry exiting turn one and spinning in front of the field.
His R-ace GP team managed to repair the damage to the best of their ability before race three, and despite a damaged tub he secured a podium finish, which secured his position in fourth place in the championship standings.
“What can I say, I got taken out at the first corner and that was it,” said Defourny. “A typical race incident which happens and no-one is to blame but it is never nice when it happens to you.
“Due to the start incident in Race 2 there was quite a bit of damage to my car. My team managed to repair most of it but the tub got damaged and we didn’t have enough time to change it. The car was deemed safe by Renault, so I was allowed to race, but this kind of damage hampers your driving.
“It was really easy to do mistakes and the car was a bit all over the place. I managed to do clean laps though and to defend P3. That was really important for me and my team – to end the season as well as possible, knowing we have given it all we could.”
Defourny had come into the season hoping to take the title, but the highly rated Belgian was unable to fulfil his ambition despite a strong season with extremely consistent results. But the dissatisfaction of his championship position quickly turns into positive thoughts about his future as he bids to move up the racing ladder in 2018.
“I cannot be satisfied with my season,” admitted the Belgian. “This final weekend was a summary of my whole year: consistent with points at nearly every race but no victory.
“Together with my engineer and my mechanic, we prepared the car as well as we could but it wasn’t enough to beat my last year’s standing. I am now looking ahead to next year to fully concentrate on my next moves.”
