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NURBURGRING – Over the weekend the second to last round of the World Series by Renault was held at the Nürburgring in Germany. Kiwi driver Chris van der Drift began his preparations well by appearing high on the timesheets during Friday testing. However while attempting to get a better qualifying time the 23 year old New Zealander went slightly over the limit resulting in the race organizers deleting Van der Drift’s best qualifying lap. This resulted in Van der Drift having to start further back in the field, missing the superpole session.

With solid lap times in the Friday collective test sessions, it was looking promising for the New Zealander. Together with drivers that in the end dominated the weekend, he was able to compete for quick lap times attaining 3rd and 5th fastest times in the two test sessions. In addition during qualifying on the Saturday morning he was quick with the best time with 2 minutes remaining. But in trying to better his time even further he went over the limit with a spin coming onto the front straight. The organizers were of the opinion that the session should be red flagged, even though the Kiwi had managed to keep the engine of his car going and drove to the pit. The series regulations provide that should a driver cause a red flag, that driver’s best lap would be deleted; meaning Van der Drift would start well down in the field on grid 20 for the first race, while the chance of qualifying within the top 3 was looking almost certain.

After a good start in the race on Saturday afternoon, the Kiwi made up several places but felt that something was wrong with the car’s setup. “Perhaps if I ran I could have gone faster”, joked Van der Drift. “There was something wrong with the setup as suddenly we were a lot slower. Later we evaluated all the data and found something which we were able to correct for Sunday’s race”. Ultimately Van der Drift finished in 14th position gaining himself a 15th start position for Sunday’s race.

“Today it went better”, said Van der Drift after finishing 10th in Sunday’s race. “The car still wasn’t quick enough as we were missing some pace which made it extremely difficult to make a pass. We did however manage to score the last point, so I am now looking forward to the last race of the championship in Spain”.

The final World Series by Renault races are scheduled for the weekend of 23 to 25 October at the Spanish circuit of Motorland Aragón in Alcañiz. The young Kiwi is hoping to have two strong points finishes making use of the increasing pace that has been achieved over recent race weekends.

Chris van der Drift is proud to be one of New Zealand motor racing's Black Bullets. To find out more about our Black Bullets go to www.blackbullets.com
Results: Race 1: World Series by Renault 3.5, Nürburgring, Germany, Saturday 19 September:
1 Bertrand Baguette (BEL), International Draco Racing, 23 laps in 45:01.920
2 Fairuz Fauzy (MAL), Mofaz Fortec Motorsport, +3.999
3 Daniil Move (RUS), P1 Motorsport, +6.698
14 Chris van der Drift (NZL), Epsilon Euskadi, +28.750

Results: Race 2: World Series by Renault 3.5, Nürburgring, Germany, Sunday 20 September:
1 Charles Pic (FRA), Tech 1 Racing, 25 laps in 45:59.547
2 Brendon Hartley (NZL), Tech 1 Racing, +0.695
3 Fairuz Fauzy (MAL), Mofaz Fortec Motorsport, +13.947
10 Chris van der Drift (NZL), Epsilon Euskadi, +45.810

Championship Standings World Series by Renault 3.5 after 15 races:
1 Bertrand Baguette (BEL), International Draco Racing, 128 points
2 Charles Pic (FRA), Tech 1 Racing, 94 points
3 James Walker (GBR), P1 Motorsport, 87 points
11 Chris van der Drift (NZL), Epsilon Euskadi, 34 points

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