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Silverstone: A day of Two Halves

Formula Renault-front runner, Oliver Webb (Manchester, 18) had a weekend of ecstasy and despair as he took second place in one race and seventh in the other at the Silverstone National Circuit this weekend.

Testing had been encouraging, with Webb topping the time sheets and his team Fortec racing having found the ideal setup for the shorter version of the Northamptonshire circuit. During the first qualifying session, Webb faced the dual challenge of a wet circuit and oil over a significant portion of the lap. During the session the track was drying significantly with the times tumbling accordingly lap after lap. Webb ended the session third, with Fortec teammates, James Calado and Fredrick Blomstedt in front of him.

Session two went even better ,with Webb topping the time sheet for most of the session until being pipped by rival and friend, James Calado. The North-West-based driver was just four hundredths of his teammate and expectations were running high for the race itself.

Going into race one, Webb was sure he could use his good starting technique to make up at least one place away from the line. The Formula BMW graduate positioned his car to go between the two front row drivers and his plan worked well. Off the line Webb instantly took second place from Blomstedt and almost got past Calado as well. Webb knew the move was ambitious and backed out when it became clear it was likely to result in contact between the two Fortec cars. Webb then pushed Calado lap after lap, hoping to elicit a mistake from his long standing rival. The pair of them pulled away from the chasing pack and exchanged fastest laps throughout the rest of the race. Try as he might, Webb couldn’t find a way past Calado and the pair finished first and second, over four seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Having finished so strongly in race one, Webb went into race two confident in his car and setup. His only concern was that being in second place he was on the dirty side of the track. In the dry this would make less difference, but come race two the rain bucketed down and Webb’s second place on the grid was far from ideal. The rain stopped just before the race and the whole grid switched back to slicks to cope with the drying conditions. Webb was beaten off the line by Dean Smith, but a strong defensive move saw Smith back out of the throttle and the Cheshire –born driver was able to hold his place.

After the average start, Webb’s weekend started to go wrong when he was tapped from behind early on. The contact put him onto the Astroturf on the outside of the corner and coated his tyres in water. The off put him down to 10^th and left the Championship leader with it all to do. Webb has always possessed great overtaking ability and demonstrated this by quickly getting himself back up to sixth position. Webb pushed Dean Stoneman hard and almost got past the Alpine Motorsport driver, but had to back out to avoid an accident. Shortly after that move Webb span while pushing hard, and dropped down to 21^st place leaving him with another mammoth task. Unperturbed, the steely willed youngster threw caution to the wind and gave an overtaking master class, fighting his way from 21^st to eighth in the remaining laps.

Webb is back in action on September 19^th at the Rockingham International circuit, the only banked course on the 2009 Formula Renault UK calendar.