Pieter Schothorst in the points at Nurburgring
After a long seven-week break, the Formula Renault 2.0 championship returned for the fifth and sixth race of the season. Round 3 took place at the famous Nürburgring Grand Prix Circuit in Germany, the place of many a dramatic race. In anticipation of this and after an incident-filled time at Spa-Francorchamps, Pieter Schothorst was looking for a return to form.
“I’ve learned the track pretty fast and after a few laps I got back the ‘good feeling’ in the car. The different conditions during the weekend made it extra exciting; we had sun, rain, damp and windy conditions! It was a lot of fun.”
Pieter excelled in spite of the challenging variation in conditions and took his best qualifying position of the season, finishing 5th in his group, giving him a starting position of 9th for Race 1. The Dutchman also showed solid pace during the race finishing 10th; managing to keep up with the pace of the front-runners and only just missing out on breaking into their ranks.
The rain fell again on Sunday as Qualifying 2 proved to be extremely difficult, with cars aquaplaning in the wet conditions. Pieter struggled with the balance of his car as conditions improved and ultimately qualified in 19th place for Race 2.
Despite a disappointing position, Pieter displayed an amazing start to Race 2 when he successfully progressed though the cars to 10th place within the first three laps. In a hectic fight when he battled for 9th place, Pieter lost his front wing. Showing the determination we have come to see of him and knowing that a pit-stop would cost him valuable time, he carried on without it. Battling hard and defending for a large portion of the race, he brought the car home in a respectable 13th place.
Overall it was a very good weekend for the McGregor driver and his team. Not only did he successfully get to grips with the car, improving his overall pace in qualifying, but he scored his first points of the season. The team also had cause to celebrate a podium position from teammate Nato. Pieter now looks forward to Hungaroring where he hopes to take another step closer to the front-runners.
“In 2 weeks from now we go to Hungaroring. I have never been there before but it should be fun! I think we can go for some points again; the team and I will give everything we have to do so!”