UK 2.0: Russell Racing Donington Saturday notes

SEASON'S BEST QUALIFYING FOR RUSSELL AT DONINGTON

Matt Russell thoroughly enjoyed his first ever qualifying outing on the Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit earlier today, the 22-year-old producing a season's best performance to line up 18th on the grid for round 15 of the Formula Renault UK season.

In pleasant conditions, and in front of the championship's biggest crowd of the year by far as support to the British round of the World Series by Renault, the Russell Racing star lapped the 2.5-mile track in a time of 1m 31.522 seconds to secure a spot on the ninth row of the grid for tomorrow morning's Formula Renault UK race.

With the competitors only having one 20-minute qualifying session in which to qualify for both of Sunday's races, it was of paramount importance for Matt to produce consistently quick laps.

His second fastest time of 1m 31.888 seconds ensured the Harlesden-based driver would also qualify inside the top 20 for tomorrow afternoon's 16th round of the season so the Leoline Travel and Maltings Leisure & Fitness-backed ace is rightly confident of challenging for the top 15 in both 12-lap encounters.

Speaking after qualifying, Matt commented: "I'm pleased with our performance today and certainly looking forward to the races tomorrow. It'll be the first time I've ever raced on the Grand Prix layout and it would be fantastic to produce my best results of the season at such a big race meeting.

"We did suffer with a little bit of understeer at places like the Old Hairpin but it was nothing major and I'm confident we'll have a good car for the races. As the team's 'home' race meeting we do have a lot of guests coming to Donington so I'm hoping to give them all something to cheer about tomorrow."

Over 50,000 spectators are expected to attend tomorrow's race action at Donington with Formula Renault UK sharing the bill with the internationally regarded World Series by Renault, Eurocup Formula Renault, Eurocup Megane Trophy and Renault Clio Cup.

In addition, there will be two special demonstrations of Renault's Formula One World Championship-winning R25 car, as driven to success in the driver and constructor title chase last year by Fernando Alonso. Frenchman Jonathan Cochet will put the car through its paces on the 2.5-mile Grand Prix circuit tomorrow, Sunday, 10th September.

-credit: rr