28th/29th April 2007

After leaving Zolder following the opening Eurocup round in Belgium last weekend, Jon and the SG Team travelled to the technically demanding track of Ledenon near Nimes in the south of France, for a round of the French Formula Renault Championship.

Jon was impressively quick in qualifying, so quick in fact that but for a problem in the first sector on second qualifying, his sector two and three splits revealed a pace that would have been good enough for a grid start inside the top six. “I might even have been on pole,” Jon said afterwards. “The car was just so quick in that session. In fact for most of the session I was running around P6 anyway, but the faster times were not set until the last couple of laps of the session, and I was not out running at that moment.”

A shunt shortly after the start of the first race on Saturday gave way to a Safety Car period, but not before the damage had been done. Jon had made an excellent start from grid 13, “and I was up to around eighth position when the shunt happened just ahead of me. I actually had to stop dead to avoid the wreckage, and then engage first gear to set off again, as I worked my way around the bits of bodywork on the track. It meant that after there Safety Car I re-started in 14th place, before fighting my way back up to eighth by the finish. I reckon I was the only car moving forwards and over-taking people – everyone else was just stuck in line!

“Looking at my lap times I was very pleased afterwards. Even though I was stuck in traffic and having to pass other drivers, my best lap of 1:19.798s, was only just slightly slower than Alexander Sims (a former karting rival), who set a 1:19.767s ahead of me, and he had a clear track... I could definitely have gone quicker, and with the speed I had, a podium was a real possibility.”

The second race of he Ledenon weekend thereforepromised more, “until one of my team-mates took the nose of my car of in the race,” was how Jon summed up the final round of the day. “The team were impressed though with the way the weekend had gone. We were quick, especially when bearing in mind that Ledenon is such a technically demanding track, and that I did not have any previous experience of the track. It also important to note that I beat Tristan Vautier in the first race, especially as he is lying in second place in the Eurocup series. It helped to show just how fast we were!”

The Nurburgring event in Germany is the next on the calendar for Jon, in rounds three and four of the Eurocup, and after the pace demonstrated in France, “I am really looking forward to this weekend,” he said with confidence.