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Jon Lancaster: Calverley motorsport ace enjoys maiden win
Calverley driver Jon Lancaster took his maiden World Series by Renault victory with a faultless, lights to flag win in the first of two races at Portimao in the Algarve.
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The 20 year-old started from pole position, his second of the season, and held off a fierce challenge from championship leader Bertrand Baguette and new Torro Rosso F1 driver Jaime Alguersuari.
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In just his fourth appearance in the 3.5 litre Comtec Racing car, Lancaster made a great start to lead into the first corner where Chris van der Drift and Dani Clos collided.
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The first of two safety car periods occurred on lap two when British Formula 3 championship leader Daniel Ricciardo's car was retrieved after a collision with Julian Leal.
At the restart, Lancaster got the jump on Baguette who was right on the tail of the BRDC Rising Star, the battle set to continue right to the flag. Despite the deployment again of the safety car when three cars collided on lap 14, the Leeds ace was more than up to the job. He held his nerve over the remaining 21 laps to take an emotional victory which he dedicated to his girlfriend's late mother, Eileen Hillas who recently passed away.
"It was a complicated race and wasn't at all easy," said Lancaster. "I built up a lead at the start and after about three laps I started to push but my rear tyres went off very quickly. After the safety car I concentrated on staying focused and consistent in an attempt to keep Baguette behind.
"This worked every time until I made a small mistake when he had a good look at getting past. But this was my race and I wasn't giving it up. We're getting faster with every race; fastest lap in the second at Silverstone, first pole position in the third at Le Mans and now a maiden win in the fourth."
Lancaster's father Charles was also quick to praise the hard work and efforts of the Comtec Racing team. He said: "Jon drove a superb race and deserved that win after his performances this year. I'd like to say a big thank you to everybody at Comtec Racing team for all their hard work, it's been worth it."
Race two proved more than frustrating, after an incident with Fairuz Fauzy which damaged Lancaster's front wing and pitched him into a spin, and resulted in him being hit by Anton Nebylitsky in the final stages of the race. Despite the disappointing end to the day, Lancaster heads into the next rounds of the championship, at the Nrburgring over the weekend of September 19-20, confident of another strong showing.
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Weather for Leeds
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
