The final round (race 13-14) of Formula Renault Eurocup 2011 took place at the Catalunya circuit, just outside Barcelona, Spain last weekend, October 8-9, and Sandy Stuvik, the 16 year old local Thai racer had his best qualifying of the year as 7th fastest in his group which saw him start from 14th place in the 38 car Formula Renault 2.0 grid, Sandy’s highest qualifying position this season.
As the red lights went out on Saturday, Sandy had an awesome start and immediately started challenging forward. Coming through turn 2 he was forced wide onto the gravel and lost some of the gained positions, but still kept the momentum going.
Sandy gives the thumbs up in the pit lane.
Over the next laps Sandy showed he could match the pace of the cars around him and held his position. By lap 5 he was running strongly in his position, and was only 0.6 seconds per lap slower than race leader Carlos Sainz, when he was forced wide exiting turn 8 and launched his car up in the air on the high curbs. The ensuing damage to the car saw his lap times dropping radically and Sandy found himself sliding down the order until he finally took the checkered flag after 16 laps in 24th position.
The race was won by Spaniard Javier Tarancon, with compatriot Carlos Sainz in second and Russian racer Danil Kvyat in third.
The final race started Sunday afternoon and Stuvik lined up in 27th spot on the grid, which shows how close the competition in Europe is as the first 10 drivers just ahead of him were within one second of Sandy’s qualifying time, and these are some of the world’s best drivers in this class.
Sandy had again improved and set his best qualifying lap with a time of 1:45:280, which was almost 1.3 second faster than his qualifying laps the previous day and a personal best time around this circuit.
As the lights went out he again had a good start. He was keen to avoid a melee in the first corner and stayed on the inside of turn 1 and then outside at turn 2. As luck would have it several cars spun in front of Sandy and he was forced to brake to avoid contact and found himself virtually at the back of the 38 car grid.
Sandy Stuvik races to his fastest qualifying time at the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, October 8.
Then started the long fight back up the order again and Sandy found himself with a solid and undamaged car and could start to push. He passed one car per lap and by the end of the race took the checkered flag in 26th position.
Congratulations to Robin Frijns from the Netherlands and Josef Kaufmann Racing for winning the championship, a fiercely competitive and hard fought championship at that. Carlos Sainz Jr from Spain was the runner up while Danill Kvyat from Russia was took third.
Sandy would like to thank the very professional and capable Interwetten.com Junior Racing Team for their help and support in the latter part of the season. The progress for the young Thai rookie driver has been very positive and most certainly something to build on for years to come.
For Sandy Stuvik it is now back home to Thailand to plan the next step in his racing career with the generous help of his sponsors, Singha Corporation, The Pizza Company, Dacon Inspection Services, RAAT and SAT, and the support of his team. The Thai driver has proven at the age of sixteen that he is in the top 28 of the world’s young and promising drivers and he intends to build and improve on this position over the next years in his quest to be a Thai driver at the pinnacle of world motorsport.
