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Will Palmer fights to 13th in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 opener

Will Palmer put together a strong recovery drive to 13th as he made his European racing debut for the R-ACE GP team in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 at the Motorland Aragón circuit in Spain this morning (Saturday).

The Sussex-based 19-year-old initially made a good start in clear conditions to squeeze up to 15th from 16th on the grid at the start, before gaining another position as he overtook Vasily Romanov in the middle sector. He ended the lap in 14th position in the middle of a tight midfield scrap which included eight cars, separated by just over two seconds.

Will was unfortunate to be shuffled back to 17th place on the second lap, but immediately set about recovering lost time and he managed to climb back to 16th by the time yellow flags came out for an incident on the third lap.

From there, Will settled into a nice rhythm as he improved his personal best lap-time by a second on the fifth lap, before lowering his best time further to dip under the 1m58s barrier next time around. Will's impressive sequence of laps continued on lap seven as he set a time of 1m57.401s with a trio of personal best sector times.

Will continued to lap consistently in subsequent circuits, with another personal best coming on the ninth tour, following a blinding final sector improvement, as he posted a 1m57.376s effort.

By the end of the 10th lap, Will was up to 15th position and applying intense pressure to the pack ahead with more consistent lap-times in the 1m57s range.

Will's strong late charge continued on the 11th lap as he re-passed Fortec Motorsports Driver Romanov, following an exciting wheel-to-wheel duel, and once past, he immediately set about closing the gap to R-ACE GP team-mate Julien Falchero ahead.

The deficit to the Frenchman was reduced rapidly, with Will reducing the gap by a whopping six-tenths-of-a-second in the opening sector alone on the final lap. Will's pressure paid off, and he was up to 13th by the time the chequered flag fell at the end of the lap. His performance was also strong enough to secure sixth position in the hotly contested Rookie Class.

He will line up 11th on the grid for race two of the weekend which gets underway at 17:35 BST later today (Saturday).

Eurocup Formula Renault - Motorland Aragon, Spain - Race One Results

1. M Defourny, R-ace GP, 14 Laps
2. L Norris, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +1.847s
3. J Daruvala, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +7.349s
4. H Scott, AVF, +7.724s
5. R Shwartzman, Josef Kaufmann Racing, +12.632s
6. B Baptista, Fortec Motorsports, +16.519s
7. H Chaves, AVF, +18.894s
8. N Troitskiy, Fortec Motorsports, +20.268s
9. A Korneev, JD Motorsport, +21.494s
13. W Palmer, R-ace GP ART Junior Team, +27.479s

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