Double podium in mixed race for Carlin at Donington

Petru Florescu and Max Fewtrell took two podiums for Carlin in the second Ford MSA Formula race at Donington today.  It was a race of mixed emotions though as James Pull was taken out of a promising second place due to a gearshift failure while Devlin DeFrancesco was taken out of the race with contact.

Today’s reverse grid race saw the Carlin cars start line astern, with Florescu heading the team in the second placed grid slot.  The Romanian had DeFrancesco right behind him, followed by Pull and Fewtrell who started fifth.

At the start, Florescu maintained second, although here was a shuffle of the order behind him, as Pull passed DeFrancesco for third with Fewtrell fifth.  A lap later Fewtrell also mounted an attack on DeFrancesco, who found himself under attack from the cars behind and dropped initially to 11th.

Contact from another car ended DeFrancesco’s race at the end of lap two though, and shortly after the safety car was required to neutralise the racing while marshals cleared the track, the order remained unchanged for several minutes.

As racing got underway again at the start of lap nine, Pull duly made the most of the opportunity to make an attack on Florescu, with Fewtrell also getting in on the action.  Pull swept through into second, with Florescu dropping to third just ahead of a feisty looking Fewtrell.

Pull’s impressive progressive was halted on lap 10 however, when the Carlin man dropped down the back of the field, allowing Florescu to move back into second and Fewtrell into third.  Pull later retired in the pits with gearshift failure.

Both Florescu and Fewtrell upped the pace in the final stages, with Fewtrell setting a fastest lap on the penultimate lap of the race, only to be bettered by Florescu who took the final fastest lap honour with a 1.08.755 on the final lap.  The duo duly took a double podium for the team with a second and third place.

Speaking about his race, Florescu said, “I had a very strong race, I had a bit of an issue at the start but I had a good car and the fastest lap time.  It’s good to be on the podium again and I think we are in good shape to make progress again in race three.”