Morgan Takes Maiden Eurocup Podium

Alex Morgan consolidates his position as the top British driver in the Formula Renault Eurocup 2008 series. Fortec motorsport's Eurocup driver Alex Morgan gave another fantastic performance at Estoril in Portugal as the team and driver made its first trip to the historic F1 track. Throughout Thursday and Friday's free practice of over 50 cars, Alex was never out of the top 6 and finished the Friday session just 0.08s behind championship leader Daniel Ricciardo. After a qualifying problem for race 1 and achieving P14 on the grid, Alex went on to qualify P6 for race 2. From P6 Alex made a fantastic start out dragging both Caldarelli (P5) and the 3rd and 4th drivers as they headed down to turn 1. He exited the complex in P3 and never looked back. Before the deployment of the safety car Alex was on the tail of second place driver, fellow Welshman Singleton, and had a comfortable cushion over 4th placed Da Costa. After losing his advantage as the cars bunched up behind the safety car, Alex made no mistake on the restart and pushed hard to open the gap back up and went on to take the chequered flag for a comfortable first podium in Europe. Alex said:

I was disappointed with qualifying for the first race as it was red flagged due to an accident just before I crossed the line on my hot lap which would have given me a top 5 grid slot for race 1. The first race went well finishing 11th but didn't really reflect the pace that we had over the whole weekend. Starting from P6 in race 2, I had the chance to show our true pace and when the lights went out I managed to out drag 5th place man Caldarelli, pushed the 3rd and 4th ( Ricciardo and Verne) place drivers wide at the 1st hairpin and seized 3rd place. I then managed to drop 4th place man in the race quite quickly and whilst I was quicker than Singleton ahead of me in P2, it is a difficult track to overtake on and he knew where to defend. I have to thank the team who have put in a huge effort in their first year in the Eurocup and I am pleased to give them their 1st podium. I am looking forward to the next round at Barcelona as it is one of the few tracks in Europe that I have previously raced at.

The team boss of Fortec Motorsport, Richard Dutton, commented:

Alex has come on a fantastic amount this year and has worked very well with the team. Whist we have brought a lot of Renault experience to the championship it is only our 1st year in the Eurocup and to be achieving podiums is very satisfying.

Alex is now focussing on next weekends race in the NEC Formula Renault Championship at the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit. He will then be returning to the Eurocup for the season finale at Circuit de Catalunya.