Formula Renault
UK 2.0: Sam Bird Oulton Park summary
SUPER QUALIFYING EFFORT BY BIRD AT OULTON PARK Despite his inexperience in Formula Renault, Sam Bird, from Claygate dominated qualifying for the Formula Renault UK double header at Oulton Park this weekend. The challenging Cheshire track ...
Published: May 16, 2006, 5:11 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
SUPER QUALIFYING EFFORT BY BIRD AT OULTON PARK
Despite his inexperience in Formula Renault, Sam Bird, from Claygate dominated qualifying for the Formula Renault UK double header at Oulton Park this weekend.
The challenging Cheshire track holds no fears for Sam, who had a double win here last year in Formula BMW. At 8.30am on a wet Saturday morning, yesterday, Sam went out and was topping the time tables right until the very last minute of the qualifying session, when he was pipped by a mere 3/10 second by Markus Niemela. "My pitboard told me I had pole position" said Sam afterwards, so I was a little surprised when I returned to the garage to find I was second "never mind, a front row in only my third Formula Renault race is a great result and I shall do my very best to capitalise on it".
In the second qualifying session, no fewer than six drivers topped the time sheets, but the consistent name was Bird, setting faster and faster laps, finally being the only one of 28 competitors to achieve a laptime of under 1min 20 seconds. "I'm thrilled to achieve a pole here" he commented "I really enjoy driving at Oulton Park and hoping for my first Formula Renault podium tomorrow".
However, Sam's hopes were short-lived, when a first corner incident saw him punted off the track from behind in the first race.
In the second race, on Sunday afternoon, Sam made a poor start and was downgraded to third place by the first corner. Pushing hard to retake his position, he tried every which way to pass the more experienced Hogan, but it wasn't to be. After an incident which brought out the safety car, Sam maintained his third position, until a flying Metcalfe overtook him with just a couple of laps to go. "He literally caught me napping" said Sam afterwards "Although the result of the first race was beyond my control, in the second one I definitely made a couple of mistakes, which you can be sure I have learned from and I will now go to Thruxton confident that I can now qualify well and aim to improve my championship position."
Sam now lies 9th overall in the championship. The next rounds are on June 4th at Thruxton.
-diane-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Phoenix: Blackhawk Racing race report
Next article Jeremy Metcalfe Oulton Park race two
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Sam Bird
McLaren Formula E team set to close without buyer
Formula E
Formula E
McLaren Formula E team set to close without buyer
Top 10: Ranking the best GP2 non-champions
FIA F2
FIA F2
Top 10: Ranking the best GP2 non-champions
Five things we learned from the Mexico City E-Prix
Formula E
Formula E
Mexico City ePrix
Five things we learned from the Mexico City E-Prix
Latest news
Charles Leclerc blames Mexico GP clash on track layout - Fred Vasseur disagrees
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
56 min
Charles Leclerc blames Mexico GP clash on track layout - Fred Vasseur disagrees
Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak set for WRC return as Toyota announces bumper 2027 line-up
WRC
WRC WRC 1 h
Kalle Rovanpera and Ott Tanak set for WRC return as Toyota announces bumper 2027 line-up
Why NASCAR's indecision led to Dodge's decision to return to Cup
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
4 h
Why NASCAR's indecision led to Dodge's decision to return to Cup
Dodge announces return to NASCAR Cup Series in 2027
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 7 h
Dodge announces return to NASCAR Cup Series in 2027
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe