Recent News

Strong top-six finish for Will in NEC at Assen

Will Palmer bounced back from a challenging weekend at Spa-Francorchamps to record a pair of strong results, with a best finish of sixth, at Assen as the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup headed to the Netherlands.

On his first visit to the TT Circuit Assen, often referred to as the 'Cathedral of Speed,' Will showed well in qualifying with the 19-year-old on the pace of the front-runners throughout both sessions. A lap time of 1m35.472s put Will ninth on the grid for the opening race of the weekend, but the Southwater racer could consider himself unfortunate not to be higher up the grid as only three-tenths of a second covered the grouping from third down to Will.

The 2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner continued to improve as the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup field headed immediately into its second qualifying session. Finding over two tenths of a second, Will lapped the 2.8-mile Assen track in a time of 1m35.208s, which put him seventh on the grid for race two of the weekend in the Netherlands.

As the lights went out to start the first encounter of the weekend, Will was unfortunate to lose a number of places with the R-ace GP driver dropping to 12^th. However, Will regrouped and after closing on to the back of those ahead, was able to overtake the Fortec Motorsports car of Nikita Troitsky on lap 10. Despite pushing hard to move into the top-10, the field was set and Will had to settle for an 11^th place finish at the flag.

Lining up on the fourth row, Will made a great getaway and was quickly past the Josef Kauffmann Racing car of Robert Shwartzman and the Tech 1 Racing machine of Sacha Fenestraz off the line. He then set about attacking Fenestraz's team-mate Dorian Boccolacci for fourth but, despite applying heavy pressure, had to settle for fifth in the early stages.

The field began to stretch out and Will was soon forced to switch attention from Boccolacci to Fenestraz behind. The 2015 BRDC Formula 4 Champion fended off the attacks from Fenestraz ably for a number of laps but eventually had to relinquish the position as the Frenchman squeezed past.

Nevertheless, Will drove a controlled race and was never challenged from behind to take the chequered flag in sixth, and record his best result of the weekend. The next action of the 2016 season for Will takes place at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France on 27/28 August as he returns to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 duties.

Formula Renault 2.0 NEC - Assen - Race One

1. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, 16 Laps
2. D Boccolacci,  Tech 1 Racing, +4.388s
3. J Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +5.193s
4. S Fenestraz, Tech 1 Racing, +5.801s
5. M Defourny, R-ace GP, +6.181s
6. F Habsburg, Fortec Motorsports, +11.594s
7. R Shwartzman, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +12.242s
8. B Baptista, Fortec Motorsports, +12.803s
9. H de Sadeleer, Tech 1 Racing, +13.740s
11. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +15.324s

Formula Renault 2.0 NEC - Assen - Race Two

1. M Defourny, R-ace GP, 16 Laps
2. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +1.695s
3. J Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +7.880s
4. D Boccolacci, Tech 1 Racing, +8.173s
5. S Fenestraz, Tech 1 Racing, +9.404s
6. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +9.721s
7. R Shwartzman, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +14.287s
8. F Habsburg, Fortec Motorsports, +15.046s
9. A Gill, Mark Burdett Motorsport, +17.091s
10. N Troitsky, Fortec Motorsports, +17.600s

Latest Results

Latest Eurocup Standings