Following Dan Ticktum’s successful first outing in the GP3 series at Monza three weeks ago, Dan returned to Formula Renault Eurocup for the ninth round of the season at Spa-Francorchamps.
The weekend got off to a difficult start for the British driver, whose car appeared to have a base set up that wasn’t quite suited to the track.
Dan pushed hard throughout Friday’s collective test and managed to qualify P9 for Races 1 and 2 and P7 for Race 3 in his Group.
Starting Race 1 from P18 overall, Dan was ready to fight his way up the pack. However he didn’t get the chance as the race started behind the Safety Car and was eventually red flagged due to extremely foggy and unsafe conditions, meaning Dan finished where he started in P18.
Dan got off to a good start in Race 2, quickly making up two places to P16 but his attack was interrupted by a short Safety Car period after a driver lost control of their car going up Eau Rouge on lap 1. At the restart, Dan immediately began chasing down the pack, eventually bringing the car home in P12.
By Race 3 on Sunday, the car had significantly improved and better suited the track. Dan started the race from P14 and swiftly overtook as many cars as possible around the legendary Belgian track to finish P7, taking home valuable points in the fight for the Rookie championship ahead of the final race weekend of the season at the end of October.
Dan Ticktum: “As we feared coming here we seem to be up against it a bit at these big GP tracks. We can’t start off with a good base setting. So we were coming from behind a bit but we improved all through the weekend and at the end our race pace was good.
“I really enjoyed Race 3, did some good overtakes and made the most of it and seventh wasn’t too bad considering where we were – P14 on the grid. I had fun in that one.”
Dan will be racing in the GP3 Series at the Circuito de Jerez, Spain from 06 – 08 October.
The final round of the Formula Renault Eurocup will take place at the Circuit de Catalunya from 27 – 29 October.
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Qualifying 1: 9th (Group B) – Race 1 Grid: 18th – Race 1 Result: 18th
Qualifying 1/2: 9th (Group B) – Race 2 Grid: 18th – Race 2 Result: 12th
Qualifying 3: 7th (Group B) – Race 3 Grid: 14th – Race 3 Result: 7th
Formula Renault Eurocup Championship position: 7th – 128 points – after 20 of 23 races