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Eurocup Mégane Trophy

The second meeting of the 2013 Eurocup Megane Trophy season began at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday, with former championship winner Mike Verschuur (McGregor by Equipe Verschuur) excelling in the rain before current points leader Mirko Bortolotti (Oregon Team) took charge on a drying track, the Italian ending the day ahead of team-mates Kelvin Snoeks and Kevin Gilardoni.

In an opening session contested in driving rain Kelvin Snoeks took an early lead before Jeroen Schothorst (McGregor by Equipe Verschuur) went off on the pit straight, causing a temporary halt.

There were 30 minutes of testing remaining when the drivers went back out, time enough for 2009 champion Mike Verschuur to ease ahead of the field with a string of fastest laps. The best of them, completed in 2:44.488, left him over a second in front of the Oregon Team trio of Kevin Gilardoni, Kelvin Snoeks and Mirko Bortolotti, with Max Braams (Las Moras by Equipe Verschuur) completing the top five.

Making the most of improving conditions in the afternoon, the drivers upped the pace. Jakub Knoll (Gravity Charouz) moved out front early on before Oregon Team took over, with Kevin Gilardoni, and then Kelvin Snoeks and Mirko Bortolotti going fastest, the Italian taking charge 20 minutes from the end with a lap of 2:27.519.

On a dry track Mike Verschuur and Erik Janis (Gravity Charouz) tried in vain to dislodge the leader, who underlined his superiority by signing off with a time of 2:26.752 just two minutes before the chequered flag came out. Team-mates Kelvin Snoeks and Kevin Gilardoni were over a second off the pace behind him, while Mike Verschuur and Erik Janis came in fourth and fifth-fastest respectively.

What they said

Mike Verschuur: “I really love these conditions. After a difficult weekend at Motorland we seem to have sorted our problems out. The car is great and the team have done an excellent job. I hope to keep it going but you can never predict what the weather’s going to do at Spa.”

Mirko Bortolotti: “We managed to get through our scheduled workload and I’m more than satisfied with the day. The weather is going to play a big part, but now that we’ve driven in the wet and the dry I think we’re ready for any type of conditions.”

Kelvin Snoeks: “The weather made the morning session very tricky and we had a few problems with understeering. We had to work on that to pick our times up and things went better in the afternoon. I did three laps on new tyres at the end of the session but encountered traffic. We’ll have a close look at the data but I think a good weekend is possible. Mirko’s the man to beat, but I’m confident.”

Official Renault Sport Press Release.

Posted: 31 May 2013
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