More Points at Snetterton

On the back of an extremely professional and successful Silverstone meeting, Michael headed to Snetterton for the second round of the BARC Formula Renault Championship full of confidence. Having never driven on the circuit before, the Falcon Motorsport team thought it would be best to take advantage of the extra Thursday test. ?The extra day was a fantastic opportunity to learn the circuit and more about the car. I think we took full advantage of the day and achieved all the targets we set; especially with the help of Mark (McLoughlin), he did a fantastic over the weekend and really got the best out of me?.

In qualifying, Michael was hampered by a gearbox problem, meaning he had to settle for sixth on the grid. ?I was loosing a lot of time over a single lap with the gearbox problem. It wasn?t until we stripped the box back in the garage that we realised exactly what the problem was?.

Michael made a fantastic start to the race and passed three cars into turn one. After being squeezed in turn two by James Littlejohn, Rossi was able to use his extra momentum and slipstream effect to re-pass Michael on the main straight. On lap 3, Michael was forced off the circuit by Matt Shawyer in an unruly passing manoeuvre. ?Rossi made a mistake in turn one on lap 3 and blocked me off into turn two. Matt just drove around me, completely off the circuit and then chopped straight back on along side me. If I had not of moved or backed off we would both have been in the barriers somewhere. It was completely unnecessary and very dangerous?. After loosing a substantial amount of ground to the cars in front after that incident, Michael was unable to make up the lost time and came home in 5th place.

?I?m disappointed to have only come away with a 5th place after a long weekend of hard work. Our pace clearly indicates that we are among the front runners and should have been challenging for the podium. It has definitely been another big learning curve this weekend and I hope we can carry this momentum into the next rounds at Croft in May?.