MAXWELL HITS THE INFAMOUS HUNGARORING
Off the back of the Monaco Grand Prix, the Formula Renault Eurocup Championship took a 4 week break, allowing drivers to recharge before heading into the remainder of the 2017 season.
Round 5 of the Formula Renault Championship saw the drivers and teams head to Budapest for an action packed 3 races at The Hungaroring.
Heavy storms hit for Qualifying 1, throwing wet conditions at the drivers. Taking a liking to the conditions, Maxwell was able to qualify a strong third in group A and 6th overall for Race 1. After a good start to Race 1, chaos unfortunately brought Maxwell undone seeing him retire from the race early.
Maxwell then headed into Qualifying for Race 2 and 3 with his sights set on another good performance. After a good start to the session an unexpected suspension failure brought Maxwell to a halt on track after completing only one lap. The disappointing mechanical failure forced Maxwell to start from the rear of the field for both Race 2 and Race 3.
After coming from the back of the field, Maxwell could only manage a disappointing 22nd and 24th for the final two races of the weekend.
"It was quite an unfortunate weekend, after having such strong pace, it was gutting not to be able to take advantage of it and come away with three very good results" says Maxwell. "I felt we had a lot of potential but didn't get to show it because of our difficulties. It was a frustrating weekend but we’ve just got to bounce back from it and come back even stronger."
"Overall it has been a very positive weekend," summarised Simon Abadie, Tech 1 Racing Team Manager. "Tom’s performance in Q1 was solid, securing 3rd in the group, but unfortunately he couldn’t capitalise on it during the race. In Q2, he was also on course for a good result, sitting fourth place early on until a rear suspension wishbone broke on his second lap. From that point onwards, the end of the weekend became difficult. Thomas shouldn't get too disheartened however, he has to continue looking for performance gains wherever he can to turn his good form into results".
“The positives are that the pace is there, we just need to keep working at it and doing our best and the results will come our way” said Maxwell
The Formula Renault Eurocup returns this weekend at The Nurburgring, followed by RedBull Ring in two week’s time.