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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998 |
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Final 2009
PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000 Championship Standings:
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mail your news to editorthegrid@yahoo.co.uk 2009 PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000 Championship BRATT WINS EUROSERIES 3000 TITLE & PRIZE DRIVE IN GP2 ASIA!
“I can’t believe it, it really hasn’t sunk in yet”, said the 21-year-old Briton after securing his first international championship, “It’s been an amazing year, we’ve won four races, taken lots of podiums and to then seal the championship during the final round is fantastic. To win the GP2 prize drive on top of that really is the icing on the cake.” Delivering countless star performances throughout the course of the season, Will clinched the crown with another typically outstanding drive during today’s 13th round – carving his way through from sixth on the grid to a superb second place. Serving up an unbelievably tight championship climax, Will’s result during the final race of the year enabled him to tie on points at the head of the driver standings with race winner Marco Bonanomi. Taking into account the number of victories secured by each driver during the year and then second place finishes in order to determine the champion, Will’s runner-up spot this afternoon was decisive. Winning a total of four races and claiming five other podiums en-route to the title victory, it was also a landmark moment for EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport – the Spanish team’s first ever title success in any category. Almost single-handedly, Banbury-based Will also took the squad to the runner-up spot in the team’s championship. He added: “I’m as pleased for Emilio and the whole team as I am for myself. They’ve done a fantastic job for me over the last couple of years – first in Formula 3 and this season in Euro 3000. To do such an incredible job in our first year in the championship speaks volumes, especially as we’ve had to overcome a lot of bad luck. We all thoroughly deserve the title, it’s an incredible feeling.” Now, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star’s attention turns immediately to his GP2 graduation with the PartyPokerRacing-backed Scuderia Coloni team. Official testing ahead of the first two rounds of the 2009/2010 GP2 Asia Series will take place less than a week from now at the brand new Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Friday, 23rd October, and Saturday, 24th October. The season-opening event will then follow just seven days later at the Middle Eastern venue over the weekend 31st October/1st November as support to the final Grand Prix of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship season. “GP2 is where any young driver needs to be to attract the full attention of the F1 teams and to have the chance to race in the Asia Series is one I’m going to grab with both hands”, said Will, “It’s going to be very tough against so many experienced GP2 drivers but I thrive on challenges and can’t wait for the Abu Dhabi test at the end of the week. This is the best moment of my career by far.”
SUPREME MONZA VICTORY GIVES BRATT VITAL CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD
Relentlessly punching in fastest lap times throughout the 13-lap encounter, the 21-year-old from Banbury dominated the 12th round of the campaign with a stunning drive from fourth on the grid to set-up a nail-biting climax to the championship tomorrow. Not only is the title tantalisingly close for the highly rated Briton, so is the champion’s prize of a drive in the 2009 GP2 Asia Series. “This win is undoubtedly the most important of my career”, said the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star, “I had to win today to make sure we gained points on Fabio (Onidi) and Marco (Bonanomi) but to take the fastest lap, and the championship lead, is incredible and means we have a great chance to try and win the title tomorrow afternoon. “The reverse grid format for Sunday’s race means I’ll have a huge fight on my hands, especially with my main rivals all starting ahead of me, but our pace has been good all weekend. There’s so much up for grabs in tomorrow’s race, it’s going to be very exciting.” During pre-event practice on Friday, Will impressed immediately with the second fastest time in the morning – his track debut at Monza – before topping the timesheets in the afternoon, and overall for the day, with a superb lap of 1m36.822 seconds (215.393km/h), four 10ths of a second quicker than his closest challenger. In qualifying this morning, Will held pole position with just four minutes of the session remaining and looked on course to begin the first of the weekend’s races from the best place possible while also claiming the bonus point for clinching first place on the grid. During his final run though, he was blocked at the Parabolica and so slipped to fourth with a time of 1m36.502 seconds (216.107km/h). At the beginning of round 12, the EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport driver made a perfect getaway and scythed his way past chief title rivals Fabio Onidi and Marco Bonanomi, and pole-sitter Rodolfo Gonzalez, to take a crucial early lead. Immediately pulling away from his pursuers, with the 550bhp Zytek-powered Lola cars reaching over 300km/h at the fastest part of the circuit, Will lapped impeccably and took the chequered flag 2.5 seconds ahead of Gonzalez to assume the lead in the championship for the first time at the most vital point of the campaign. Gaining a total of 11 points today, 10 for the race win and a bonus point for setting the fastest lap of 1m37.544 seconds, Will now holds a two point advantage over Bonanomi with Onidi three points further behind, the latter having led the standings by the same margin heading into the weekend.
DOUBLE VALLELUNGA PODIUM KEEPS BRATT’S TITLE HOPES ON TRACK
With one more event left to run, and only six points separating the British racer from the top of the driver standings, Will is very well placed to challenge for his first international motor racing crown when the season finale takes place at Monza four weeks from now. The 21-year-old EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport driver took second place in yesterday morning’s 10th round of the campaign and then carved his way through from seventh on the grid in round 11 to take a fine third place – his sixth and seventh podium visits of the year. “Obviously I’m really pleased to get two more podiums this weekend”, he commented, “The main aim has been to score as heavily as possible and we took away more points than any of the others so, with that in mind, it’s been a success.”
Lining up on pole position for round 10 after dominating qualifying on
Saturday, Will made a clean start but a rapid getaway from fellow title
aspirant Marco Bonanomi enabled the Italian to get right on terms. At
the Cimini corner, Bonanomi produced an unexpected overtaking move to
edge ahead and drop Will back to second place. Remaining tight to Bonanomi’s tail, and posting the fastest lap of 1m25.551 seconds (171.897km/h), the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star pressed on and eventually finished the race just 0.5 seconds adrift. “It’s annoying to have missed out on the win in the first race but fair play to Marco (Bonanomi), he made a great start and that was the difference”, said Will, “Second was still a great result and with the bonus points for pole position and the fastest lap, it meant we scored the same.” On the opening lap of the 11th round, which Will started from seventh on the grid by virtue of the ‘reverse’ top eight format employed by the championship, he lost ground initially when forced to take avoiding action to miss the slowing car of Francesco Dracone. Fighting back well, the race then threatened to change when, on lap seven, rain showers arrived. Fabrizio Crestani, one of Will’s main championship rivals, decided to pit for treaded tyres but the conditions didn’t worsen to the point where wet-weather rubber would prove beneficial so the drivers remaining on slicks had no problem running at a competitive pace. In the end, Will took a deserved third place and crossed the line on lap 23 just 3.7 seconds shy of race winner Fabio Onidi. Running consistently quickly, the Oxon driver just missed out on setting the fastest lap with a best time of 1m26.765 seconds – just a 10th of a second shy.
Reflecting on round 11, he commented: “The set-up of the car wasn’t
ideal when the rain came as we had gone with very stiff settings. To
come through and take another podium is a great result though and means
we have an opportunity to fight for the title during the final rounds at
Monza. I’ve never driven there before but it’s a legendary track and an
experience I’m really looking forward to.”
TWO WINS OUT OF THREE FOR IMPRESSIVE BRATT IN VALENCIA
Following on from an excellent lights-to-flag win during round seven on Saturday, the 21-year-old produced another memorable performance earlier this afternoon in the third of a trio of races at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit to secure win number three of the season in fine style. Lining up fourth on the grid, Will was leapfrogged by an extremely fast starting Rodolfo Gonzalez but the Banbury-based driver hit back instantly by passing the four cars ahead before they headed into the second corner to take a lead which he held all the way to the chequered flag on lap 23. As on Saturday, he just missed out on the bonus point for fastest lap by a mere four 100ths of a second. Including his maiden Euroseries 3000 victory at Zolder in Belgium during the previous event three weeks ago, Will has now won three of the last four races and is certainly in the ascendancy in terms of the title battle with just eight points now separating him from current series leader Fabio Onidi. “To win two out of three races this weekend is fantastic”, said Will, “I’m absolutely delighted with how things have gone and although it was disappointing we couldn’t fight for the podium in the second race, to move into third in the championship caps everything off brilliantly.” During this morning’s eighth round, Will started from second on the grid but his car wasn’t able to get away from the line as well as he wanted. Subsequent contact from Onidi forced Will onto the grass and while the incident meant the EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport racer dropped to sixth position, the clash also resulted in damage to his Zytek-powered Lola. He finished in fifth place. Will added: “This morning’s race was very disappointing, the contact from (Fabio) Onidi at the start caused some damage and we had a few other issues with the car but the team did a tremendous job to resolve the problems in time for race three to give me a car capable of winning again.” No sooner has the fourth race meeting of the season been concluded than the Euroseries 3000 Championship will be back in action with rounds 10 and 11 of the 2009 season taking place this coming weekend, 19th/20th September, at Vallelunga in Italy. Will cannot wait to be back in action as the season heads towards its finale although he does recognise some of his chief championship rivals will have a distinct advantage racing at home in Italy, especially with Vallelunga another circuit the Briton has never visited before. “Obviously we don’t know the circuit at Vallelunga and we’re fighting for the championship against three Italian drivers (Onidi, Marco Bonanomi and Fabrizio Crestani) so we’ll be up against it”, he said, “It’ll be a tough challenge but we’ll be trying as hard as ever to do the best we possibly can. The title battle is incredibly close, we need another strong weekend like this one – that’s the aim.”
VALENCIA VICTORY GIVES BRITISH STAR BRATT SECOND WIN OF SEASON
Off the back of a tremendous maiden win at Zolder in Belgium three weeks ago, the Banbury racer got his Valencia weekend off to a fantastic start this morning by claiming a dominant pole position for the opening encounter with a scorching lap of 1m23.000 seconds (173.71km/h). Such was his pace, Will’s best lap placed him over two 10ths of a second clear of series leader Marco Bonanomi Making a good getaway at the beginning of round seven – the replacement race for the cancelled Donington Park event from earlier in the season – the EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport driver was never headed throughout the course of the 23-lap race, although he did come under a huge amount of pressure from experienced Euroseries 3000 competitor Fabio Onidi.
Heading into tomorrow’s pair of races at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, Will remains in fourth position in the championship but the four-way battle at the top of the driver standings is closer than ever with a mere six points separating Will, Bonanomi, Onidi and Fabrizio Crestani. “The weekend has started perfectly for us with pole position for today’s race and our second win on the trot, I couldn’t be happier”, said an ecstatic Will at the conclusion of round seven, “Everything went well this morning, qualifying on pole was very important, and then in the race I was able to control things at the front. “Fabio (Onidi) did put us under pressure but it wasn’t a problem, the car did what I wanted it to and our pace was good. We managed to pull well clear of the others and with Marco (Bonanomi) not able to finish, the championship has closed right up. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s races.”
BRATT TAKES SUPERB MAIDEN EUROSERIES 3000 VICTORY AT ZOLDER
The 21-year-old, driving for EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport, produced stunningly consistent pace throughout the sixth round of the season and took the chequered flag on lap 27 just under eight seconds clear of Italian racer Fabio Onidi. As the only driver to post sub-1m 21 second times lap after lap, Will also set the fastest lap of all with an effort of 1m20.309 seconds. Having never been to the 2.5-mile Belgian track prior to Thursday’s pre-event practice, Will’s superb pace throughout the course of the third race meeting of the campaign has been all the more impressive considering his lack of experience. The Banbury-based racer retains his top four place in the driver standings ahead of the next event which will take place at Valencia, Spain, in three weeks. “It’s such a good feeling to achieve our first win, it’s fantastic for me, for everyone at the team and hopefully marks a major turning point in the season for us”, commented Will, “To finally get the win under our belts is a major boost and it’s no more than the team has deserved as they’ve done an incredible job all year. We’re really pleased with such a strong finish to the weekend.” Lining up third on the grid for the opening race, round five, after a great effort in qualifying on Thursday afternoon, Will ran strongly behind championship leader Marco Bonanomi and looked well on course to secure a podium finish. Before mid-distance though, Will’s car picked up an unfortunate slow puncture which eventually resulted in the tyre exploding and pitching him off the circuit. Bouncing back brilliantly in round six, Will got away very cleanly from pole position and was never headed on his way to a 7.8 second winning margin. Leading by around one second prior to a Safety Car period on lap three, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star did a terrific job at the re-start and continued to post fastest lap after fastest lap. On the 14th tour, Will posted the quickest lap of the race and over the course of the remaining 13 laps he continued to extend his advantage at the front. Taking such an impressive win, the talented racer has reaffirmed his place as a genuine 2009 title contender. Will added: “Obviously it was really disappointing to pick up the puncture in race one, another problem which was no fault of our own. At that point I was starting to wonder what we needed to do to have some better fortune considering the steering failure we had at Magny-Cours! “Our pace was consistently quick though so I knew we’d have a good chance in the second race. The team did a fantastic job to get the car perfect for race two, so a big thank you goes out to Emilio and the rest of the guys. I was able to push lap after lap to build a good lead over (Fabio) Onidi, the car felt great and I can’t wait now for the triple-header at Valencia next month.”
pics - PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000 Championship BRATT NARROWLY ESCAPES 150MPH DISASTER AT MAGNY-COURS
The 21-year-old got his weekend off to an excellent start on Saturday with his second rostrum visit of the campaign to move into equal third in the driver standings. The mechanical failure in Sunday’s fourth round, however, resulted in the highly-rated British racer crashing out on lap 15. He has, though, managed to retain a position in the championship top four. It is currently unclear why the malfunction occurred but Will’s EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport team is looking into the potential causes. From the start of the race, Will noticed a vibration which compromised his pace and braking so he wasn’t able to run the sort of lap times he proved he was capable of during the third round on Saturday. Lining up sixth on the grid for round four, Will moved ahead of GP2 Asia Series driver Earl Bamber on the opening lap and then gained a further place on the second tour following the retirement of Michael Dalle Stelle, a spin for the latter triggering a huge accident for Fabrizio Crestani. Realising he didn’t have the pace to challenge the three cars ahead due to the ever-worsening vibration he was experiencing in his Lola, Will still held on to his top four placing but on lap 15 the steering failed while he was travelling at around 150mph, forcing an instant retirement. He was classified seventh in the final race result, one place outside the top six points-paying positions. “We’re obviously very disappointed with the way the weekend has finished as, if we hadn’t had the problem with the steering, I’m certain we could have fought for the win on Sunday”, said the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star, “From the start I felt a vibration which got worse and worse but we still managed to stay in fourth. “There was no way I could run the pace of the top three though which was frustrating as I beat all of those guys on Saturday so I know, without the problem, we could have been looking at our first win of the season. Overall though, it’s not been a bad weekend with the race one podium. Now I’m really looking forward to Donington a month from now, it’ll be great to race on a track I know pretty well.”
CLASS DRIVE FROM BRATT SECURES SECOND PODIUM OF YEAR
Lining up fourth on the grid after posting a best lap of 1m27.542 seconds (181.39 km/h) in the earlier qualifying period, just four 10ths of a second shy of pole position, the Banbury racer’s Zytek-engined Lola almost stalled at the start of the 16-lap race which resulted in Will dropping down to ninth place as the field headed through the first few turns. Immediately underlining his excellent racecraft, the 21-year-old gained three positions in quick succession in the middle sector of the first lap alone to climb back into the top six and then, on lap two, he passed countryman Ben Hanley for fifth. On the fourth tour Will moved ahead of Venezuelan driver Rodolfo Gonzalez and after reeling in Italy’s Fabio Onidi over the next three laps, the EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport racer made his move past Onidi at mid-distance and quickly pulled away. Halving the gap to championship leader Fabrizio Crestani before the finish, Will took the chequered flag on lap 16 just three seconds behind the Italian and less than four seconds adrift of race winner Marco Bonanomi. The result moves the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star up from sixth in the championship to equal third with Onidi, both drivers tied on 12 points. “I’m really pleased to have finished on the podium again, especially after the start we had!” said Will after the race, “The car almost stalled off the line and we slipped to ninth but I managed to get by three cars during the middle part of the first lap and then picked off (Ben) Hanley, Rodolfo (Gonzalez) and (Fabio) Onidi by mid-distance. “As soon as I got into the top three I started to pull away and catch the two guys ahead but by that point they had already managed to pull out too much of a gap. Even so, I closed them down quite well and I think we demonstrated we have the pace and ability to do well in this championship. I can’t wait for race two, hopefully we can make a better start and fight for another podium.” Will’s weekend started under misty skies on Saturday morning and a damp track greeted the competitors at the beginning of the first 30-minute free practice. Seventh fastest as he settled in to the feel of the car and also bedded in brakes, he improved to fifth quickest in the second session before moving forward again in qualifying to secure fourth place on the grid for race one.
MAIDEN EUROSERIES 3000 PODIUM FOR BRATT AT PORTIMAO
Driving beautifully throughout the weekend, the EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport racer battled wheel-to-wheel with a whole host of experienced GP2 Series campaigners and drivers from other high-profile international categories. Ending the event just four points behind series leader Pastor Maldonado, Will overcame a complete lack of testing prior to the weekend – caused by serious mechanical problems with his car – to emerge as a genuine challenger against a high quality field of drivers. “I’m really happy to have finished on the podium this weekend, it’s a good start to the season and a great reward for the team who worked unbelievably hard since we arrived in Portugal to sort out the problems we had with the car – I can’t thank them enough for their efforts”, said Will. Heading onto qualifying on Saturday morning with less than an hour’s track time under his belt at the wheel of his 550bhp, Zytek-powered Lola due to the aforementioned issues, Will belied his lack of experience of both the track and the car by posting a best lap of 1m32.504 seconds (180.888 km/h) to secure a spot on the third row. Climbing through the order well during the early stages of round one on Saturday afternoon, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star came within just three laps of actually taking a podium on his championship race debut but a spin while fighting to keep his car in third place saw him slip down the order. He was eventually classified in eighth position, receiving one championship point. Will began round two from pole position and led from the off but his early laps were compromised due to the car having brand new brake pads which had to be fitted ahead of the race. Unable to keep Fabio Onidi behind for that reason, Will had to concede the lead but he raced well to resist further pressure from behind and maintained second place. As soon as the brakes were working to their best, Will got into his stride and matched the race leader throughout but there wasn’t an opportunity to retake first position at any point. Will took the chequered flag just eight 10ths of a second shy of Onidi – posting his fastest lap of the race of 1m34.363 seconds on the penultimate tour. Reflecting on the weekend, Will said: “In the first race I bogged down a bit off the line but managed to pick up the lost places around the outside through the first couple of turns. When I got into third everything was going well, our pace was good and a podium looked set but the back end started swinging around a bit too much and about three laps from the finish it snapped away. “It’s unfortunate but we just need more set-up time with the car. We lost both of the test days due to mechanical problems and then on Friday we only had two half hour sessions of practice. To be as quick as we were and to have run in the top three for the majority of race one was a good start. To then finish in second place during race two shows how competitive we can be this year.”
Pics EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport and Euroseries 3000
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Will
Bratt produced a true champion’s drive at Monza in Italy on Sunday, 18th
October, to win the 2009 PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000 title and
with it the potentially career-changing prize of a fully funded drive in
the forthcoming GP2 Asia Series. 
Will
Bratt scorched to the most important race victory of his motor racing
career at Monza in Italy this afternoon, Saturday, 17th October, to take
a vital two point lead in the PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000
Championship ahead of Sunday’s decisive season finale. 
Will
Bratt added two more podiums to his season total at Vallelunga in Italy
on Sunday, 20th September, to keep his 2009 PartyPokerRacing.it
Euroseries 3000 Championship title ambitions firmly on track. ---Vallel.jpg)
Banbury-based
racing driver Will Bratt sealed his second victory of the weekend at
Valencia in Spain this afternoon, Sunday, 13th September, to move into
equal third position in the PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000
Championship with an outstanding drive during the ninth round of the
campaign. 
PartyPokerRacing.it
Euroseries 3000 Championship front-runner Will Bratt enjoyed a welcome
boost to his title ambitions at Valencia in Spain this afternoon,
Saturday, 12th September, by securing his second victory in as many
races during round seven of the 2009 season. 
With
the pair pulling clear at the front and embarking on a race of their
own, Will produced a faultless drive on his way to an eventual winning
margin of 1.5 seconds from the Italian. Taking 10 points for his win and
a bonus point for pole position, the 21-year-old British Racing Drivers’
Club (BRDC) Rising Star just missed out on the extra point for fastest
lap by a mere 0.1 seconds. 
Britain
PartyPokerRacing.it
Euroseries 3000 Championship front-runner Will Bratt narrowly escaped
the biggest accident of his motor racing career at Magny-Cours in
France, yesterday, Sunday, 28th June, when his steering failed at
150mph. 
Britain’s
Will Bratt secured a sensational podium finish during the third round of
the 2009 PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries 3000 Championship at Magny-Cours
in France yesterday afternoon, Saturday, 27th June, to move into
joint-third position in the driver standings. 
Will
Bratt underlined his potential in the PartyPokerRacing.it Euroseries
3000 Championship at Portimao in Portugal on Sunday, 17th May, by taking
a terrific second place finish against strong opposition during round
two of the 2009 season.