Hungry King helps himself to seconds

Jordan King found himself battling against the elements in the Formula Renault Eurocup at the Nürburgring and Formula Renault Northern European Cup (NEC) at Oschersleben, but he showcased his steely resolve to storm his way through the spray to a brace of podium finishes.

After lapping second-quickest in the dry and third in the wet out of the 38 Eurocup contenders during practice at the Nürburgring, King entered qualifying confident about his prospects for success.

However, a change in both the air temperature and track conditions left him unexpectedly on the back foot, and a lowly 22nd on the grid for race one and 16th for race two.

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Worse was to follow in the opening encounter, with an early collision with a rival as he grittily endeavoured to make up ground. Happily, the second outing would go considerably better.

“The race began on a wet-but-drying track, with about half the field on slick tyres - us included - and the other half on wets,” said King. “We were strong right from the start and had a really good first lap to move immediately up into the top ten. I then focused on picking my way past the drivers in front. It was a case of finding the dry patches on the track and sticking to them because that was where the grip was.

“I eventually worked my way into fourth but then I got a little greedy when I tried to pass two drivers in one go, as I picked the wrong side to attack and found myself blocked, causing me to lose two places rather than gain two. I managed to get fifth position back before the chequered flag, though, which meant the weekend ended far better than it had looked like doing after qualifying.”

Having closed to within four points of the top eight in the Eurocup standings, the Stoneleigh-based driver travelled next to Oschersleben for the third NEC meeting of 2012 bullish about his chances - and duly lapped seven-tenths of a second faster than any of his 27 adversaries in first practice.

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Unfortunately, King would again find his qualifying efforts frustratingly stymied, this time by a constant flurry of yellow flags. While fourth on the grid for race one and third for race two were far from a disaster, by the same measure, they fell some way short of what the 18-year-old Princethorpe College student had been targeting.

“Race one was wet and I lost a place at the start,” he said. “But we had the speed to come back through the pack. With all the spray it was difficult to see, but I fought my way up into second and then closed right in on the leader.

“I narrowed the gap to just a couple of car lengths and was almost in a position to mount an attack when on the penultimate lap, I made a small mistake and ran off the track, which gave him the breathing space he needed. Still, I was pretty chuffed with my progression in those conditions, to be honest, especially around a circuit like Oschersleben - that was very satisfying.”

In race two, King moved past the front two on the first turn to take the lead but, with a change in track conditions upsetting the balance of the car, he dropped back to his eventual finishing position of second.

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“Every time I closed on the leader, he was able to respond.

“We were never more than a tenth or two off the pace, so our speed was good - we just lacked that last little edge.”

His excellent points haul was nonetheless sufficient to vault him to the top of the title chase ahead of race three.

However, having scythed his way from fifth on the reverse grid to second, King entered one of the corners a touch too fast, losing the rear of his Manor MP Motorsport single-seater and finding himself spearing heavily into the tyre barriers.

And, after admitting it was “probably the most damage I’ve ever done to a car” a thankfully unscathed King heads to Assen in the Netherlands sitting second in the drivers’ standings.