18th March 2011

Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship team Manor Competition delivered another strong showing during the latest official test of the 2011 pre-season at Silverstone this week – rookie Jordan King heading the squad’s charge on day one and Ollie Millroy picking up the baton on day two.

Fog delayed the start to both days of running at the Northamptonshire venue but when conditions improved enough for testing to get underway Manor’s four drivers – King, Millroy, Josh Hill and Alice Powell – all continued their good progress.

On Tuesday, 15th March, the competitors ran on the 1.64-mile National Circuit layout and when the fog finally lifted as the morning wore on, Claygate racer Millroy was the fastest of the Manor quartet with the second best time of 54.361 seconds (108.54mph).

Team-mate King, who was the fastest Graduate Cup runner throughout the opening day, was just under two 10ths of a second shy with the third quickest lap while Josh Hill and Alice Powell ended session one in eighth and ninth respectively, within 0.7 seconds of the pace.

In the afternoon every driver improved in terms of pace with Harbury-based King emerging as the top Manor runner with a lap of 53.703 seconds (109.87mph). He concluded the day a fantastic third overall, a whisker ahead of Millroy who lapped in 53.743 seconds (109.78mph) to go fourth fastest.

Farnham driver Hill improved to seventh quickest overall with a lap of 53.979 seconds (109.30mph), within 0.3 seconds of the outright pace, while Chipping Norton racer Powell rounded out the top 10 roughly a second away from the head of the times. Unfortunately, her performance was hindered massively due to an unidentified electrical problem and this frustratingly persisted on day two.

Switching to the full 3.66-mile Grand Prix configuration on Wednesday, 16th March, more heavy fog prevented any track action at all during the morning so the test got underway at midday. At the end of the five-hour session, Millroy was the quickest of the Manor drivers with a best time of 1m59.324 seconds (110.43mph) placing him third overall.

King’s best time of 1m59.504 seconds (110.27mph) was the fifth quickest of the day, 0.3 seconds away from Millroy and within half a second of the outright pace. Fractionally behind was sixth placed Hill with a lap of 1m59.659 seconds (110.12mph) – he impressively headed the times on his first set of tyres – while Powell was uncharacteristically outside the top 10 due to the continued gremlins.

“Everyone’s planned running at Silverstone this week was affected by the fog but we still managed to complete some important mileage, all in all we’ve had two very positive days”, said Manor team co-owner Tony Shaw, “That said, we did have an electrical problem with Alice’s car which proved to be very frustrating as not all the parts were available to cure the problem. She still did a professional job though.

“Jordan continues to impress us with his confidence and the way he has adapted to Formula Renault so quickly out of karts, he did a fantastic job again. Josh was very impressive too, each time we go on track he has to readjust from the Formula Ford style of driving but he’s improving quickly and did very well on the GP track in particular.

“Ollie only ran one set of fresh rubber over the whole test which came at the end of the second day on the GP track. Typically, that was when we had two red flag stoppages! Even so, he was very strong throughout – we’re delighted with the progress the whole team has been making.”

Oulton Park in Cheshire will host the penultimate test of the Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship pre-season next Tuesday, 22nd March, an outing shared with competitors from the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series. Rockingham in Northamptonshire is the venue for the final test two days later, Thursday, 24th March, on a day shared with teams from the Renault Clio Cup.