Chris van der Drift ends ‘test weekend’ with encouraging results
ALCAÑIZ (Spain), 19 April 2011 – Despite no preparation, Chris van der Drift managed his first race weekend of 2011 very well. The 25-year old Kiwi was given the opportunity to race at Motorland Aragón in the World Series Formula Renault 3.5 with Mofaz Racing. His body was fully recovered from his massive accident last year and eventually the car ran like clockwork as well, bringing home some points.
Difficult start
Van der Drift considered this race weekend as a test, as the opportunity to drive was only given a week ago thanks to Malaysian sponsors. He looked forward to the test sessions on Friday, but a mechanical problem ruined valuable time. “I already destroyed the new front tires on the first lap, blaming myself for that. But after another lap there was no doubt something was wrong. The mechanics discovered a problem with the brakes. They managed to fix it quickly, but my tires were ruined already”, says van der Drift. The lap times improved after a small issue in the second session. “Considering this was the first for me in this car, working with the team and no pre-season testing, we were coming along very strongly.”
Competitive series
With just a hand full of laps under his belt, the first qualifying session took place on Saturday. Van der Drift secured 14th place for race one, but was just five tenths of a second off pole. Van der Drift: “It’s not often you get so many cars within such a small gap!”
Exciting races
Having great starts is becoming Chris’s trade mark. This time he managed to overtake six cars during the first lap. “It was awesome and when I crossed the line after the first lap, I was in the points already. From there I had no idea how the car would react over the race, nor how I would cope physically. But both ran like clockwork and I pushed to the end, crossing the finish line in 8th”, says van der Drift, managing some great battles along the way.
Qualifying for the second race on Sunday took place on the same morning. Feeling confident about the performance after no testing, the qualifying session didn’t go as planned as the balance of the car changed massively from the day before and left the team and myself a bit dazzled. Nevertheless a 12th place on the grid was another row to the front.
Chris’s mission for the second race was clear: get the car off the line and have a smooth lap. He managed to do just that into turn one when he passed three cars, but then trouble struck exiting the corner. “I got a massive thump from behind which sent me into a 360 spin. Luckily the car wasn’t damaged and I could get going again”, van der Drift explains. “This was the race including a pitstop, so I pushed to the limit and managed to come home in 13th. This wasn’t too bad considering I was last after the first corner.”
Exceeding expectations
The race weekend exceeded his expectations by far and he enjoyed working with his engineer and mechanics. Starting the weekend with no preparation and no racing during the last six months, Chris knew it was going to be a ‘big test session’. Van der Drift: “But quickly everything felt just normal and I found myself pushing to go quicker and finding out why I wasn’t at the front. The next round is at Spa-Francorchamps just within a fortnight and I’m really going for it there. Now I’ve got the point to prove that I’m back!”
