EU Megane: Donington race one report

Tech 1 squared!

The Tech 1 Racing team has secured its first one-two of the season with Matthieu Lahaye and Bruce Lorgeré-Roux. The two Junior drivers were joined on the podium by Jaap Van Lagen. And, after race one in Donington, the overall standings are tighter than ever!

Several drivers were penalized as a result of incidents in qualifying: Pedro Petiz (Iris Racing) and Bruce Lorgeré-Roux (Tech 1 Racing) both had their three best times disallowed for failure to observe the course route while Jean-Philippe Dayraut (Epsilon Euskadi) picked up a 300 ^À fine for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane.

From the start, Matthieu Lahaye managed to stay ahead of Jaap Van Lagen, Jean-Philippe Dayraut and James Kirkpatrick. On lap one, Bruce Lorgeré-Roux was already in action taking fourth away from James Kirkpatrick. Behind César Campaniço (Racing for Belgium), Franck Mailleux (TDS) was struggling to hold off Jonathan Hirschi (Hirschi Racing Team), who was challenging for sixth.

Lahaye managed to open up a small gap over Van Lagen, Dayraut and Lorgeré-Roux, all involved in a battle of their own. Kirkpatrick meanwhile was waiting to pounce.

Having started from the third row, Bernhard Ten Brinke (Equipe Verschuur) was already back in eleventh with three laps gone. After seeing Pedro Petiz go past him, the Dutchman then had to keep his eye on Sébastien Dhouailly (TBR), who was looming in his mirrors after getting past his teammate Renaud Kuppens.

Jean-Philippe Dayraut then looked to have the better of Jaap Van Lagen on the brakes on lap 6. Bruce Lorgeré-Roux tried to use the opportunity to get past them both. Three abreast, the French driver however braked too late and found himself back in fourth. Not to be discouraged, Bruce however went on to take third from Van Lagen on the following lap. He then turned his attention Dayraut, but Van Lagen took his chance to sneak back in between the two men!

At the midpoint in the race, Lahaye was already 3 seconds clear of the battling trio. Kirkpatrick had to abandon the race after running wide and suffering a puncture. A good bit further back, Campaniço was still fighting to hold off Jonathan Hirschi, now for fifth . Luigi Ferrara (Oregon Team) and Pedro Petiz were biding their time, while Franck Mailleux was bringing up the rear in the chasing group.

Now settled into second, Lorgeré-Roux was starting to build a gap over Van Lagen and Dayraut, who were still battling away. There were then a series of incidents in the main field, with Hirschi spinning and being hit by Ferrara. Miguel Freitas was involved in a similar incident and Luca di Cienzo was forced out as a result.

With three laps to go, the race order seemed to be settled amongst the leading four of Lahaye, Lorgeré-Roux, Van Lagen and Dayraut. Behind Campaniço, Mailleux managed to win back sixth place before handing it back to the Portuguese on the last lap!

Matthieu Lahaye: "My start was pretty average but the race went perfectly. The battle between the three behind me allowed me to pull away. I was having some gearbox problems towards the end though."

Bruce Lorgeré-Roux: "It was a fine race after a pretty average performance in qualifying. It was the best result I could have hoped for."

Jaap Van Lagen: "Obviously, Matthieu has been very fast over the last two weekends, but this race is still a good result for me as I extend my lead over Campaniço in the Championship standings."

-credit: renualt