Maiden victories for Clarke and Piñiero at Brands Hatch

01/08/2011

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Maiden victories for Clarke and Piñiero at Brands Hatch

Britain’s Jack Clarke and Spain’s Ramon Piñiero added their names to the growing list of winners with impressive victories in the ninth and tenth rounds respectively of the FIA Formula Two Championship at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit on July 23^rd and 24^th.

Comma’s sponsored driver, James Cole marked a growing confidence in his debut season in Formula Two with a maiden points scoring eighth place in Race 1, and battled from seventeenth on the grid to finish twelfth in Race 2.  

Jack’s the lad for the big British occasion.

After an F2 career which had extended to two and a half seasons without a win, Clarke took the lead from the second row and pushed home for a triumph in Race 1. He was back on the podium in third place after race 2, having chased Piñiero and Mirko Bortolotti all the way to the flag, finishing just 4 seconds behind the winner.

Championship leader, Mirko Bortolotti experienced mixed fortunes, practising well but collecting a five place grid penalty in Race 1, eventually climbing from ninth to finish fifth. In Race 2, he was immediately deprived of his pole position starting advantage by Piñiero, who took the lead into Paddock Hill bend and maintained a 1.5 second advantage over Bortolotti up until the chequered flag.

Piñiero’s win in Race 2 meant he netted the biggest points haul of the weekend and promoted him to seventh in the Championship table.

Running second in the Championship before the weekend was Switzerland’s Christopher Zanella who started both races from ninth on the grid. The intensity of competition in F2 this year is such that the top fourteen qualifiers for race one were separated by well under a second. However, Zanella managed to salvage sixth place in Race 1 and seventh place in Race 2. With the gap between him and Bortolotti now at 36 points and with just six races left, he needs to close on the Italian quickly if he is to realise every driver’s ambition of claiming the Williams Formula 1 test drive for the series winner.

Comma has been Technical Partner to FIA Formula Two, and the exclusive supplier of engine oils, coolants and maintenance chemicals to the Championship since it was launched in 2009. All 24 of the identical 500bhp Williams F1 designed Formula Two race cars are lubricated, cooled and serviced with maintenance products supplied by Comma.   

You can read detailed race reports, view the complete Championship standings and keep up with all the other latest FIA Formula Two news at the excellent official Formula Two website at www.formulatwo.com