Third in the points is Double R Racing's Dan Clarke, a very tasty driver on track, who will be hoping to star at the northern circuit. The team, which takes its name from
McLaren F1 driver,
Kimi Raikkonen and his manager, Steve Robertson, has looked good from the off this year, and is run by the highly experienced ex-Carlin man, Anthony ‘Boyo' Hieatt.
“The team's going really well, we're basically where we wanted to be, we didn't expect to win the first five or six races or anything silly but we're happy that we're competitive with new drivers,” says ‘Boyo,' who runs Bruno Senna as well as Clarke in the team.
“The whole reason for this team is to bring young drivers on, it's fantastic and it's exciting to watch the drivers in qualifying and when you've got the chance or pole position with just two minutes to go it gets the pulse going up a bit,” continues Hieatt. “We're had one on the podium, to have two on the podium is the next step.”
Senna certainly raised some eyebrows in the wet track qualifying session at Spa, belying his limited race experience relative to many other runners in the field. “When it comes to pure experience the other guys have run so much in the dry and I haven't run so much in the dry, they have a bit of an advantage on me, but when it gets wet then it counts to push a bit more, to risk a bit more and I don't car about risking it if the track is wet I can try to control it, there's always a bit of hope, if it gets wet I'm usually good,” explains Bruno.
Elsewhere in the pitlane, the mammoth Carlin squad of five cars, nearly a fifth of the entire grid, is displaying confidence especially with returning driver Alvaro Parente.
The team showed well at last week's official
Snetterton FOTA test, as commercial manager Steve Holman explains.
"We had a FOTA test at Snetterton last week and Alvaro Parente was quickest in the first dry session. After lunch, it rained and Alvaro was quickest. As the track dried Alvaro was quickest on the transition period to slicks before finaly being quickest in the last few minutes on a dry circuit,” said Holman.
