King ‘Ready to Win’
Jordan King has stated he is ready to win after he was denied his maiden victory in the Formula Renault UK championship at Snetterton.
The Manor Competition driver used the seven week summer break to keep race sharp appearing in both the FIA Formula Two Championship and the Formula Renault Northern European Cup, and this immediately showed when the seventeen year old lapped the sixth and second-fastest lap times during the two Friday test sessions on the new Snetterton 300 layout.
“It was good to keep my eye in during the break, and the Northern European Cup in particular had helped me to get my mind back into driving and understanding a Formula Renault again.” said King.
On Saturday, King showed good form again as he qualified second for race one which soon turned in a pole position after the original pole man Will Stevens was found to be underweight, a seasons best for the BRDC Rising Star.
“I was already pretty pleased with second,” he confessed. “There was still more time to be found, so we knew the speed was certainly there – but to be promoted to pole position was a real psychological boost. With it being so difficult to overtake in Formula Renault, starting from pole is a massive advantage – you can control the race so much more easily.
“I wasn’t really thinking about anything whilst I was sitting on the grid; I was concentrating on getting a good start and doing a good job, so I just blocked everything else out and remained focussed on what I needed to do.”
When the lights went out and the engines fired, it was King who maintained his pole advantage and led from the front. King looked on course to take his maiden victory before a coming together with Alex Lynn on the penultimate lap.
“I got a good start when the lights went out, and after that, I was able to manage the gap throughout the race. There were a few times when Alex Lynn behind got close enough to perhaps have a think about doing something, but I always felt in control; he definitely put me under pressure, but I was comfortable in what I was doing and towards the end, I actually began to edge away a little bit – without even having to push 100 per cent.
“I was thinking, ‘we can really do this’, and I was just concentrating on hitting all my braking-points and doing everything right – but then I think Lynn’s exhaust broke, which gave him more power and therefore more performance and he was able to get back onto me again.
“He was more than 3mph faster down the straights and towed up behind me, and on the penultimate lap, he decided to go for a bit of a lunge. Just as I was about to turn in at the end of Bentley Straight, I had a quick glance in my mirror and saw him diving up my inside. He was partly on the grass, so I delayed turning to give him a little bit of room to back out of it, but he didn’t and his front wheel hit my back wheel and spun me round.
Lynn was given three points on his race license as well as a £250 fine for his part in the incident, but this was no consolation for King.
“I was really surprised that he had tried to pass me into that corner, particularly with such a half-hearted attempt. I was so disappointed that we didn’t get the result we should have done. We were the quickest on the track, and we should have won.”
The Warwickshire youngster picked himself up for race two, but it would end in disappointment just like race one.
“I made a decent start and held position in sixth,” he recounted. “but then on lap two, Olly Rowland came up the inside of me from a long way back. He didn’t make the corner and went straight on – and he took me with him.
“I lost four places through that, and because I had gone off the track, I had lots of dirt on my tyres, too, so I ended up in a fight and dropped to 12th. I managed to battle my way back through to eighth, but the general driving standards over the weekend were pretty appalling, to be honest – there were some crazy overtaking moves being pulled out there.”
Despite a disappointing pair of results, King has a number of positives to draw from Snetterton.
“The potential is there,” he concluded. “We just need the cookie to crumble slightly more our way next time – but we’re definitely ready to win.”
Photo: Jakob Ebrey
Mike Trusler
