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Podium finish for Will on Northern European Cup debut

Will Palmer enjoyed a successful Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup debut as he drove brilliantly to secure third place in the second and final race of the weekend at Monza in Italy. The 2015 BRDC Formula 4 Champion showed both great overtaking prowess and defensive skills to secure a trip to the podium on his first race weekend in the championship.

With beautiful sunshine raining down on the famous Monza circuit, qualifying got underway with two individual sessions setting the grid for races one and two. In the first session, Will had set a personal best lap time of 1m50.321s, 0.945s shy off then pacesetter Jehan Daruvala. As he threatened to go quicker in the closing moments, the red flag flew and he was unable to improve, leaving him 12^th for race one.

Last year's McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner was able to show his true pace in qualifying for race two as he lapped the circuit in 1m49.344s, just 0.110s slower than his R-ace GP team-mate Max Defourny who took pole, with Will claiming a strong third place start.

Will made a strong start in race one, making up two positions on the opening lap to finish the first tour in 10^th position. He enjoyed a great battle with Sacha Fenestraz and Robert Shwartzman amongst others during the race but lost a number of positions in the final few laps after damaging his front-wing and eventually came home in 13^th place.

Starting third for race two, the Southwater driver made a good getaway but into the tight first chicane at Monza lost out to Lando Norris and dropped to fourth. He was forced to defend from those behind, which let the leading trio edge away in the opening laps but he held on to his position and then regrouped to begin closing the gap to Defourny, Daruvala and Norris. On lap seven, Will closed on to the back of Josef Kaufmann Racing's Norris and slid down the inside of his fellow Brit into the Variante Della Roggia to take back third. He covered off Norris' attempts to fight back and then opened up a small gap on subsequent laps as the race headed towards its conclusion.

Such was Will's pace, he caught second-placed man Jehan Daruvala in the final few laps and fought hard to find a way past but was unable to secure the position. That allowed Norris to close and he was right on Will's gearbox as the Northern European Cup field began the final lap. The 19-year-old defended ably however and despite Norris pulling alongside Will on the run out of the first chicane, he saw the chequered flag in third place, half-a-second clear of his rival.

Will said: "It was a lively race. I lost a position on the first lap and had to defend a lot. But then I managed to break clear and towards the end of the race I caught Lando and Jehan. The key was our good qualifying for race two. In the midfield in race one, I damaged my front wing. Otherwise it would have been better. Now I'm really looking forward to my home race at Silverstone."

Will sits seventh in the overall standings with 28 points after the opening weekend. The next round of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup takes place at Silverstone on 14/15 May. 

Formula Renault NEC - Monza, Italy - Race One

1. D Boccolacci, Tech 1 Racing, 14 Laps
2. N Troitskiy, Fortec Motorsports, +3.104s
3. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +3.947s
4. J Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +5.775s
5. R Shwartzman, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +5.849s
6. G Aubry, Tech 1 Racing, +6.797s
7. S Fenestraz, Tech 1 Racing, +6.880s
8. V Romanov, Fortec Motorsports, +7.540s
9. A Gill, Mark Burdett Motorsport, +9.827s
13. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +31.175s

Formula Renault NEC - Monza, Italy - Race Two 

1. M Defourny, R-ace GP, 14 Laps
2. J Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +4.076s
3. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +4.904s
4. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +5.431s
5. D Boccolacci, Tech 1 Racing, +5.491s
6. N Troitskiy, Fortec Motorsports, +7.940s
7. G Aubry, Tech 1 Racing, +9.216s
8. A Gill, Mark Burdett Motorsport, +13.109s
9. V Romanov, Fortec Motorsports, +16.060s
10. H Chaves, AVF, +16.717s 

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