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Will shows battling spirit in challenging Northern European Cup finale

All of Will Palmer's fighting instincts were on show during the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup season finale at the Hockenheimring, Germany (1/2 October), as he recorded a best finish of 12th whilst producing some brilliant racing across all three races as he carved his way through the field on numerous occasions.

Making his debut on the 2.84-mile circuit, Will was amongst the leading drivers in practice on Friday, topping the first session before posting the second fastest time in second practice during the afternoon. The 22-car Northern European Cup field was greeted with challenging wet conditions for qualifying however, in contrast with Friday's dry running, and it was a step into the unknown for Will as he hadn't run at Hockenheim in those conditions.

In a tight session, Will posted the 15^th best time for race one with a 1m51.921s lap time before improving for the race two grid, a 1m41.209s in drying conditions putting him 13^th on the grid for race two.

The weather had improved for race one as the lights went out, but after just a few minutes of racing the heavens opened once more, drenching the circuit and leading to the red flags flying. After the shower had passed, racing resumed with heavy spray making conditions extremely tricky for those in the midfield. A number of incidents on the restart however led to another red flag after just four laps of racing, with Will classified in 16^th.

Sunday's action began with a frantic second encounter of the weekend, with Will battling fiercely with a number of cars on the opening lap but ultimately was pushed out of the line and dropped to 16^th. The 2015 BRDC Formula 4 Champion began his fightback almost immediately though and passed his R-ace GP team-mate Julien Falchero before attacking the Fortec Motorsports car of Bruno Baptista. The duo enjoyed a brilliant battle, with Will putting the Brazilian under huge pressure and it finally told at the halfway point of the race as he set-up Baptista leaving the hairpin and finished the move into the left-hander at Mercedes.

The 19-year-old wasn't finished there though and he managed to pass German driver Laurents Horr and Indian Jehan Daruvala in the closing stages to take the chequered flag in 12^th place.

Starting 13^th for the third and final race, Will was slow away off the grid and dropped to the back of the field into the first corner. However, the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner began his fightback immediately, recovering to 16^th by the end of the opening tour before claiming 15^th place on lap three. That soon became 14^th before he passed Laurents Horr for 13^th.

After gaining another place due to a drive-through penalty for Sacha Fenestraz, he soon dispatched Alex Vartanyan at the hairpin to take 11^th and began to close on the top-10. However, as he came into the stadium section and the braking zone for the Sachs Curve, his R-ace GP team-mate Falchero and Josef Kaufmann Racing's Jehan Daruvala were slower than usual, forcing Will to clip the grass and spin into retirement.

The final competitive racing action of the year for Will is the final round of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championshp which takes place at Estoril in Portugal on October 22/23.

Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup - Hockenheimring - Race One

1. S Fenestraz, Tech 1 Racing, 4 Laps
2. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +0.400s
3. M Defourny, R-ace GP, +0.888s
4. B Mirecki, BM Racing Team, +1.310s
5. R Shwartzman, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +1.430s
6. A Vartanyan, Fortec Motorsports, +2.485s
7. J Falchero, R-ace GP, +2.769s
8. J Allen, JD Motorsport, +3.174s
9. B Baptista, Fortec Motorsports, +3.843s
16. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +6.871s

Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup - Hockenheimring - Race Two

1. R Shwartzman, Josef Kaufmann Racing, 16 Laps
2. M Defourny, R-ace GP, +0.586s
3. S Fenestraz, Tech 1 Racing, +5.897s
4. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +7.764s
5. H de Sadeleer, Tech 1 Racing, +8.898s
6. A Gill, Mark Burdett Motorsport, +10.796s
7. B Mirecki, BM Racing Team, +18.530s
8. A Korneev, JD Motorsport, +19.089s
9. G Aubry, Tech 1 Racing, +19.682s
12. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +23.527s

Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup - Hockenheimring - Race Three

1. J Allen, JD Motorsport, 15 Laps
2. M Defourny, R-ace GP, +0.345s
3. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +0.659s
4. B Mirecki, BM Racing Team, +1.209s
5. A Gill, Mark Burdett Motorsport, +1.514s 
6. H de Sadeleer, Tech 1 Racing, +1.589s 
7. B Baptista, Fortec Motorsports, +2.059s 
8. D Boccolacci, Tech 1 Racing, +2.591s
9. J Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +3.143s
DNF. W Palmer, R-ace GP, +4 Laps

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