Thai racing driver Sandy Stuvik impressed during early practice at Austria’s RedBull Ring last weekend, setting the fastest time of all 34 Formula Renault 2.0 cars in the second session. In the third and final session he led for most of the session, before eventually setting the third fastest time.
In the Saturday afternoon qualification rounds he managed 6th place in the first, later converted to 9th due to a yellow flag infringement and 11th in the second session after catching slow traffic on his fastest lap. Still, the Austrian race commentators were quite impressed with having a Thai driver performing at this level.
Sandy Stuvik in action at the RedBull Ring in Austria, Sunday, August 26.
The Austrian summer, with blue skies and well over 30 degree temperatures, came to an end abruptly for Sunday mornings first race and the ensuing cold and heavy rain affected the set up and confidence of the Thai driver.
The first race was started under the safety car due to the large amounts of water on the track and with numerous accidents up and down the field, Stuvik opted to play it safe and ended the race in a point scoring 14th place.
The second race again started on a wet circuit and Sandy was distressed not to have a chance to show his impressive dry circuit set up speed, but again he drove a sensible race and finished where he started in 11th place.
The results enabled the Thai driver to reach 100 points for the season and maintain his 10th place in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Championship. The next race will follow this weekend, September 1-2, at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic.
Sandy Stuvik races for the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand and is sponsored by The Pizza Company, Singha Corporation, Dacon Inspection Services and Sports Authority of Thailand.
