News - 2008
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5th October, Press Release
Leading British Renault Eurocup driver Alex Morgan makes it 2 podiums in a week...
Following on from a well deserved podium at Estoril, Morgan continued his fine form with a 2nd place finish in the final North European Formula Renault Cup round at Spa Francochamps on Sunday 5th October. In atrocious conditions akin to the last part of the recent Grand Prix held at this historic track Morgan drove a superb race with no mistakes having qualified on the front row alongside Motorpark Academy’s Bottas and crossing the chequered flag just seconds behind him.
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28th September, Press Release
Alex Morgan consolidates his position as the top British driver in the Renault Eurocup 2008 series
Fortec motorsport's Eurocup driver Alex Morgan gave another fantastic performance at Estoril in Portugal as the team and driver made its first trip to the historic F1 track. Throughout Thursday and Friday's free practice of over 50 cars Alex was never out of the top 6 and finished the Friday session just 8/100ths behind championship leader Ricciardo. After a qualifying problem for race 1 and achieving P14 on the grid, Alex went on to qualify P6 for race 2.
From P6 Alex made a fantastic start out dragging both Caldarelli (P5) and the 3rd and 4th drivers as they headed down to turn 1. He exited the complex in P3 and never looked back. Before the deployment of the safety car Alex was on the tail of second place driver, fellow Welshman Singleton and had a comfortable cushion over the 4th placed Da Costa but lost his advantage as the cars bunched up behind the safety car. Once the safety car returned to the pits Alex made no mistakes to the chequered flag for a comfortable first podium in Europe.
Alex said 'I was disappointed with qualifying for the first race as it was red flagged due to an accident just before I crossed the line on my hot lap which would have given me a top 5 grid slot for race 1. The first race went well finishing 11th but didn't really reflect the pace that we had over the whole weekend. Starting from P6 in race 2, I had the chance to show our true pace and when the lights went out I managed to out drag 5th place man Caldarelli, pushed the 3rd and 4th ( Ricciardo and Verne) place drivers wide at the 1st hairpin and seized 3rd place. I then managed to drop 4th place man in the race quite quickly and whilst I was quicker than Singleton ahead of me in P2, it is a difficult track to overtake on and he knew where to defend. I have to thank the team who have put in a huge effort in their first year in the Eurocup and I am pleased to give them their 1st podium. I am looking forward to the next round at Barcelona as it is one of the few tracks in Europe that I have previously raced at.'
Richard Dutton of Fortec said 'Alex has come on a fantastic amount this year and has worked very well with the team. Whist we have brought a lot of Renault experience to the championship it is only our 1st year in the Eurocup and to be achieving podiums is very satisfying.'
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8th June, Silverstone
Alex Morgan consolidates his position as the top British driver in the Renault Eurocup 2008 series
The race weekend at Silverstone was one I was really looking forward to. It was the only race in the championship that was to be held in the UK. I had a lot of guests coming to watch me race as well so I was really eager to impress. The testing went well and by the time we had got to qualifying, I was confident that we were in a much better position than the previous meeting at Spa. I was in group B for the first qualifying and had to make the top 12 again in order to get into the superpole qualifying session. The first session didn’t quite go as planned and I took quite a while to set a good time. By the end of the session I was 8th in my group and 0.8 seconds off the fastest time. I was hoping to be a lot closer to the fastest lap but I knew going into the superpole session where I could make time up. The session started well but just before completing my first fast lap, a red flag had come out so no lap times were recorded. By the time the track was clear again, there wasn’t too long left and all the drivers needed to set two fast laps one for the first race grid and one for the second race grid. I managed to do two lap times that were only 0.03 seconds apart. This meant that I was to start 9th in race 1 and 5th in race 2. I was so happy with the result as I knew how hard it was going to be to score points in the season with only the top ten positions scoring at each race meeting.
For race 1 I was really looking forward to being near the front end and being away from all the accidents that take place in the mid field. The race got underway cleanly and by the end of the first lap I had made up 2 positions to get into 7th place. As the race continued, the pack of drivers in front of me started to pull away a little bit each lap and I started to pull out a gap to the guys behind. By the mid way point in the race I thought it was going to be an easy run to the finish because there was a big gap behind me. Unfortunately that was going to be the case as Albert Costa racing for Epsilon Euskadi closed in on me quite quickly after passing my team mate Gabriel Dias. For the last 5 laps of the race I had to defend very aggressively to keep him behind as he was quicker than me at the end of the race. I managed to keep him behind till the end and crossed the line in 7th. I was so happy that I had managed to score four valuable points and that I was in an even better position for race 2.
Sitting on the grid for race 2 was such an amazing moment as I was right behind the leaders and was sitting on the grid surrounded by Red Bull and Toyota development drivers. I was really looking forward to racing against them and seeing how high up the grid I could get. The race got underway again cleanly and without any incidents. I managed to keep hold of fifth place off the start and started to settle into a groove, trying to create a gap behind me and keep up with the leading pack. With only a few laps gone however I made a mistake coming out of the maggots and beckets complex and ended up clipping a curb that sent me spinning off into the gravel. My race was over and I was so gutted I hadn’t got the result I wanted. Despite the bad result in race 2, I knew I had learnt a lot about racing at the front end of the field and had come away with four points. The pace at the front end of the pack is a lot faster as there aren’t any slow drivers in front of you so you have to push as hard as you can. This was a new experience for me and I was hoping the opportunity would come around again in the next few races.
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3/4 May, Spa Francorchamps
Alex's race report and thoughts from his first weekend in Formula Renault Eurocup...
Spa Francorchamps turned out to be every bit exciting as drivers say it is. The Eau Rouge and Blanchimont complexes, plus the new F1 pits and start area all add to make this track so special. The qualifying on Friday went okay, I was slotted into Group A and had to make the top 12 for the Saturday Superpole shoot out. A bad vibration in the RH rear cut my session short, but we did enough in the first few runs to qualify for the Superpole. This was my first experience of this qualifying format, and my lack of track experience and a mistake on a quick lap left me in P22 for Race 1 and P20 for Race 2.
Race 1:
The first race was a really great experience; we used the new F1 grid, downhill into Eau Rouge, with 48 cars chasing the points scoring top 10 positions. I had an excellent start and made up several places. After the mayhem and carnage of the first lap, I got into P17 and the car felt good in race trim. Soon I was able to gain on the cars in front, and by lap 5 I had climbed to 13th place, the car was set up well and I managed to take advantage of it with some good manoeuvres. After a short time I was able to see the pack fighting for P3, which I began to reel in and whilst the race was nearly over I was only 11 seconds behind P3 at the chequered flag. A good race but a bit of work to do to get into the points!
Race 2:
This I thought would be a good chance to get some points. I had decided, following yesterdays start, to go right around the outside with plenty of speed. As the lights went out I made an excellent get-away and managed to pass 4 or 5 cars through Eau Rouge and got up to P10 from P20 by the time I got to the “Malmedy Les Combes” chicane! Just as I was entering the braking zone, disaster struck with one of the other drivers turning into the back of my car, ripping his front corner and damaging the RH corner of my car.
After such an excellent start I knew that if nobody hit me I would be in for my first points of the championship. I was extremely disappointed for the team as much as for myself. From the good, race trimmed car I had in race one, scoring points looked very manageable.
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26 February
Alex signs with Fortec Motorsport for the 2008 season in Formula Renault Eurocup!
Fortec Motorsport is pleased to announce that Alex Morgan has joined the team to contest the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup. The british driver who finished in the top 10 of the UK championship in 2007 had set his sights on a Eurocup drive in 2008 after a 5th at Magny Cours in September, and 2 top-10 finishes at Barcelona in October with Fortec. Morgan joins Dean Smith, Daniel McKenzie, and Gabriel Dias at the team.
Alex said "It has been my objective to compete in a championship winning car and in a championship winning team for 2008 and I am absolutely delighted to have signed for Fortec for this championship. Whilst there will be a lot of new tracks to learn our experience at Magny Cours and Barcelona in 2007 were very encouraging." Fortec team principal Richard Dutton commented "It's great to have Alex join the team for the Eurocup. I know he'll bring a great-deal of experience and talent to an already strong line-up. We started testing this week at Valencia and have already shown ourselves to be serious about succeeding in this category".
Article courtesy of Fortec Motorsport