23rd September 2007


Sporting his new sponsor Multiflight, based at Leeds/Bradford Airport, Jon arrived for the multi-round races at Magny-Cours in France, for the next rounds of the Eurocup series, as well as the French Championship, for the Formula Renault 2.0 single-seater class.


Photo: Eric Lemuet

Steve Borrowdale, Managing Director of Multiflight - www.multiflight.com - was happy to announce the sponsorship of Jon, as the company moved to join the rapid 18-year old Leeds based youngster at an important stage of his career: “We are thrilled to get involved with Jon Lancaster and support his career. The high octane world of motor racing is a good fit with our business in aviation, and we take pride in supporting a rising star who is local to us. We hope to be by his side all the way and we will be watching his progress keenly.”



As for Jon he too was very pleased with the new sponsorship deal, which was announced just in time for the French race, when he commented that he was “really pleased to be able to include Multiflight among my partners. Leeds/Bradford Airport is just down the road (from where I live) so I’m a regular passenger there. I hope Multiflight, and their clients, find the racing world as exciting as I do. This kind of support is what will fuel my journey to the top, and I’m grateful that I’m taking the next step with Multiflight on board.”

With a 40-minute session ahead of them, Jon was not in any rush to be one of the first onto the track, but after ten minutes or so, the whole of the Eurocup regulars were out on the Magny-Cours Grand Prix track, as they fought for the fastest time on their first set of new tyres. And as expected Jon was in the thick of the action. As his times started to tumble, he maintained his position near the top of the leader-board, ending the session with the fourth best laps to take grid four, for both the Saturday and Sunday rounds of the Eurocup series.

With the rain virtually incessant all afternoon on the Saturday, the track was drenched by the time the first Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 race of the weekend got underway. The Clio Renault Sport safety car was therefore brought out for the first three laps, but sadly for Jon a small mistake saw him drop back to 21st position. “I was quick and being held up by the guy in front, and I had really good traction in one of the corners,” Jon explained afterwards, “but I felt the back of the car start to kick, got a lot of wheel-spin, and it just went round as I spun. It was my fault and was just one of those things.”

Jon’s subsequent recovery from 21st to 11th by the time the chequered flag appeared, simply helped him to demonstrate a simply stunning performance, in what were rather difficult weather conditions. And as he had shown on several other occasions throughout 2007, he was the exception to the general rule, by showing his overtaking prowess from start to finish.

For the second Eurocup race of the weekend, there were still extensive wet patches in evidence as the drivers lined up on the starting grid. As Brendon Hartley, whom Jon had convincingly beaten at Donington a couple of weeks earlier, got off to a flying start, Jon was embroiled in an intense fight with Fabio Leimer, Tobias Hegewald, Franck Kechele, and Jaime Alguersuari.

At the end of lap 2, Arzeno went ahead of race-leader Hartley, which also presented Jon with the opportunity to overtake the Eurocup Series points leader for second place, where Jon shadowed Arzeno, at least until the safety car appeared following a crash in mid-field. Incredibly Jon was then handed a drive-through penalty for overtaking his rival, after allegedly cutting across the chicane. “The decision to give me a penalty was stupid beyond belief,” Jon said afterwards. “I was pushed from behind and that is what forced my to miss the turn-in point for the chicane. We watched the video afterwards and it was clear what happened. They know by now that I do not drive inappropriately, so to give me this penalty, especially when I was fighting for the lead, just can’t be right!”

Indeed it wasn’t, but it was bad enough to remove Jon from a potential race win, at a time when he was starting to make a serious mark on the Series, after his recent haul of points that have come about as he has continued to gain in experience.

For the French Championship round, the SG Formula team were left with only a few minutes to try and set the car up for qualifying when the weather changed, but Jon was left struggling for balance on the car due to wrong tyre pressures. “We did get this sorted near the end of the session,” Jon said, “but just as we put new tyres on the red flag appeared, so we were left down in 19th place.”

In what could only be described as an incredible drive, Jon stormed his way forward, his progress hampered by two safety car periods, but even those episodes could not dampen his enthusiasm, as he continued to forge his way forward to an eventual seventh placed finish. “Realistically,” Jon said, “I reckon but for the safety cars, I could have reached the podium, which from grid 19, would have been pretty good.” Despite his tender years, Jon is starting to develop the art of understatement.

With two more rounds of the Eurocup Series left, with races at Budapest and Barcelona, Jon remains determined to capitalise on his late season pace, to improve on his current position of seventh in the Eurocup Championship table, where he currently lies with 38 points to his credit. “It is feeling good,” Jon commented, “and I am getting better each race. The next few weeks should be interesting.”

So interesting in fact that Jon has been announced as a potential nominee for the prestigious BRDC 2007 Autosport Award, where the top six single-seater drivers below Formula 3, voted for by the general public, will go forward to a ‘shoot-out’ for the “Young Driver of the Year” title. The votes are already being cast and Jon is hoping that his recent Donington win, before a crowd of an estimated 85,000 people, have marked him out as a driver worth voting for.

Renault Sport links:
Race 1
Race 2