Tech 1 Racing takes the lead!

After its perfect weekend in Brno, the Magny-Cours round brought Tech 1 Racing back down to earth with a bump in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, one of the most hotly-contested championships on the calendar. In Budapest, the Toulouse-based team's drivers hit back - hard - as Arthur Pic is now within striking distance of the championship leader, and Tech 1 Racing has gone into the lead in the teams' classification.

Arthur Pic Credit: Eurocup 2.0

As usual, the team's drivers took advantage of collective practice to work on the setup of their cars despite numerous stoppages during the sessions. In qualifying, Tech 1 Racing showed its true potential. 16-year-old Aaro Vainio bagged the 2 pole positions while 18-year-old Arthur Pic set the 2 third-fastest times. Hugo Valente finished the session in fourteenth and twelfth places.

"Aaro was very quick over the whole weekend," says Simon Abadie. "We're very happy with his performance in qualifying as we've set him some tough objectives after the potential he showed at the start of the season. He's more than met them. Quite honestly, we upped the pressure on him in Budapest. He reacted very well and had a super weekend. It's his first season, he's learning and he's already done a lot of good work."

At the start of the first race, Aaro did not react quickly enough when the lights went out and Pic shot into the lead. The French driver was never troubled for the rest of the race, and took the chequered flag to score his fourth victory of the season. The Finn also drove well, and for the first tilme in his career he was on the Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0 Championship podium.

The next day the race followed a similar pattern for Vainio. He again fluffed his start but still managed to bag another third place behind Pic. "For the first time this season, Arthur wasn't the quickest in Budapest," commented Abadie. "But he again had a perfect weekend and drove two very good races. He struck a vital blow as he took advantage of the first mistakes this season by Kevin Korjus, the championship leader. Not only has he taken second place in the title chase but he's also eaten into the Estonian's lead. He arrived in Budapest thirty-two points behind and he's going on holiday having closed the gap to eleven!. Honestly, a few days ago I didn't think our championship hopes were all that bright. Now, everything's possible!

"We need our three drivers to win the teams' and drivers' championships. We mustn't sit back. Once again I have to congratulate Aaro for his two poles and two third places, but he has to work on his starts. On the other hand, the weekend didn't go off very well for Hugo. We're expecting more from him, and he has to become again the driver he was at the start of the season."

The team now has a few weeks' well-deserved rest before the Formula Renault Eurocup 2.0 restarts in Germany at the beginning of September.

Results:

Qualifying 1                           Qualifying 2
1- A. Vainio, 1:43.481                 1-  A. Vainio, 1:43.725
3- A. Pic, +0.219                      3-  A. Pic, +0.279     
14- H. Valente, +0.848                 12- H. Valente, +0.794



Race 1                                  Race 2
1-  A. Pic                              1-  L. Bacheta (Interwetten)
2-  W. Stevens (Manor),  +5.117         2-  A. Pic,       +0.697         
3-  A. Vainio,           +7.095         3-  A. Vainio,    +1.874      
16- H. Valente,         + 1 Lap         NC- H. Valente             



Classifications:                       
                                       
Drivers                                Teams
1- K. Korjus (Koiranen), 100 pts       1- Tech 1 Racing, 134 pts 
2- A. Pic,                89 pts       2- Koiranen Bros, 113 pts 
3- L. Bacheta,            79 pts       3- Interwetten,    86 pts    
5- A. Vainio,             45 pts 
13- H. Valente,           18 pts 

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