Tech 1 Racing and Roy Nissany score their first top-3 finish in 2015 in Austria 13.07.2015: Formula Renault 3.5 Series – Red Bull Ring The Red Bull Ring hosted the fifth round of the 2015 Formula Renault

Formula Renault 3.5 Series – Red Bull Ring




The Red Bull Ring hosted the fifth round of the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 Series. After helping Roy Nissany to break his duck in Hungary where Aurélien Panis added more points to his tally Tech 1 Racing was determined to continue in the same vein in Austria.


The work done by the Toulouse-based squad helped it to achieve this objective by putting Nissany on the podium, the team’s first in 2015.
     

In Austria the first collective test session took place on Friday and Nissany shone by setting the fifth-fastest time, and first of the rookies. Panis used it to dial in his car on the Red Bull Ring layout. The young Frenchman broke into the top 10 in the second session on Saturday.


The day continued with the two qualifying sessions. In the first, both drivers just missed out on the top 10 and locked out the sixth row. In Q2 Nissany put in a scintillating lap setting the fifth-fastest time, while his team-mate clinched another eleventh place.


On Sunday in heat 1 both drivers gained places when the lights went out, but the Israeli had to retire on lap 8 due to electrical gremlins. His team-mate drove a steady race and bagged the four points that went with eighth place.


In the second race Nissany started in fourth place on the grid after the exclusion of a rival. The driver from Tel-Aviv pulled back a place at the start and he controlled his race without problems to give Tech 1 Racing his first top-3 finish in an international category in his career, as well as winning the rookie battle. Panis was eliminated in a collision.


“Scoring our first podium finish just before the summer break is very positive,” said Simon Abadie, the Tech 1 Racing team manager. “This excellent weekend underlines our efforts since the start of the year: our package is increasingly competitive.


The overall level of performance continues to improve at each meeting and the combination between the drivers and their cars is starting to deliver results. Roy’s performance has come at just the right moment. We turned a corner at Spa, but we failed to convert it into results. Now we’ve done so and this step forward is going to galvanise our men when we restart.


“We could have done even better in qualifying but we had to put together the different sectors. The ideal times showed that Aurélien could have broken into the top five and Roy into the top ten. This will come with experience as our drivers are still learning the ropes.


 In race one Roy suffered an engine cutout caused by the electrics and had to retire. Aurélien put on a good show. Despite flat-spotting his tyres in the first corner and betting on the medium downforce setup, which handicapped him after the deployment of the safety car, he was able to get back on the pace and score points.


“Given Roy’s scintillating performance in the second race we’re now in an ideal position to realise our growing potential. He showed at the start that he had gained experience by getting the better of his rival and he then controlled his race perfectly to get onto the podium.


After scoring his first points he’s progressing in the right direction. Unfortunately, Aurélien had a more difficult time. He was caught up in the pushing and shoving on the first lap and a collision forced him to take to the grass which blocked the radiators.


 We stopped him to keep an eye on the temperature and we hoped we could do something with the car, but unfortunately other parts of it were damaged.


“Roy’s top-three finish and Aurélien’s points have helped us to move up the overall classification. We’ve scored points in the last four meetings and we’ve added to our tally each time. Our two drivers are just outside the top ten and our guys are coming home from Austria with their tails up.


Their efforts have been rewarded and we’re going to work hard to continue this positive spiral at Silverstone; it’s a very technical circuit and we’re going to do our utmost to turn up there as fully prepared as possible thanks to the ID1 Technologies simulator in Toulouse.”


Next stage

The end of the Austrian event heralds the start of the summer break. Tech 1 Racing will be back competing at Silverstone (Great Britain) on 5-6 September for the restart of the World Series by Renault. The British weekend will kick off a very busy month with no fewer than three Formula Renault 3.5 Series and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 meetings in the space of four weeks!

     


 Roy Nissany

Collective test 1: 5th
Collective test 2: 16th
Qualifying 1: 12th
Qualifying 2: 5th
Race 1: Retired
Race 2: 3rd


 Aurélien Panis
Collective test 1: 17th
Collective test 2: 9th
Qualifying 1: 11th
Qualifying 2: 11th
Race 1: 8th
Race 2: Retired



Formula Renault 3.5 Series – Drivers

1. Oliver Rowland 164 points
13. Aurélien Panis 22 points
15. Roy Nissany 19 points


Formula Renault 3.5 Series – Teams


1. Fortec Motorsports 256 points
7. Tech 1 Racing 41 points…

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