The first meeting of the season for the WORLD SERIES by RENAULT 2011 took place this weekend on the ALCANIZ track in Spain and Paul Loup CHATIN took part in the very challenging EUROCUP championship.

In this first leg, the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” 2011 had a qualified success although it was generally positive. Yet Paul Loup CHATIN started well, finishing in 9^th and 7^th place in the free practice sessions on Friday.

Things went downhill slightly in the first qualifier. Victim of a yellow flag when he was on his fast lap, Paul Loup lost the advantage of his new tyres and could not do better than 11^th in his group. Relegated to 21^st position on the grid, the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” had an excellent start in Race 1 which propelled him to 11^th place at the end of the first lap! Unfortunately an electrical fault forced him to abandon, a shame because points were conceivable.

The next day, Paul Loup CHATIN found himself in the top group to compete in the qualifiers and lost four places for just one tenth of a second! He found himself down in 9^th position of his group and 17^th on the starting grid of Race 2.

Paul Loup had another very good start and rapidly moved up to 10^th position before gaining another. The positions were then to stay fixed until the finish despite several attempts to overtake and the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” would finally cross the finishing line in 9^th position.

“This place globally reflects the level of our performance this weekend,” Paul Loup confided, “the TECH 1 team did some really good work starting with the collective tests to improve the set up, but it required specific driving and I had a bit of trouble with it to start with. Overall the weekend was positive because we showed again that our performance is constantly improving. It’s a shame we had an electrical problem during Race 1 but that’s part of motorsport! All the same, I reached my goal and finished in the top 10 and I think we can hope for a bit better at Spa because the TECH 1 team support me all the way.”

Satisfaction was also found at EUROFORMULA and its Director, Laurent FRADON, explained his point of view to us: “Paul Loup stayed in the running despite the problems encountered. He knew not to give up and fought to move up the ranking for the two races. The EUROCUP is a difficult championship and we have to give him time to get his bearings but I am certain that he will soon be battling for the podium. We are satisfied with Paul Loup’s performance.”

Next meeting on the 29^th, 30^th April and 1^st May on the SPA FRANCORCHAMPS track for the second challenge of the EUROPCUP 2011.

www.euroformula.com