Driver of the Weekend boost for Lloyd

Flying WRDA member Hywel Lloyd scored some welcome points and scooped the coveted Sunoco Driver of the Weekend Award in the latest rounds of the 2010 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship at the legendary Belgian circuit of Spa. With the track snaking it’s way through the densely wooded Ardennes and having finished seventh after carving his way through the field from 15th on the grid in the previous round at Rockingham, Hywel was hopefully of some good results ‘It’s like being back in North Wales, right in the middle of the woods. Spa is one of my favorite circuits and maybe the best of them all. Its got everything, especially those long sweeping bends and fast straights. The straights are so quick we have to reduce some of the down-force to get the most out of them and that means the corners are a bit trickier, more challenging, but it’s a brilliant place to race."

CF Racing’ bugbear this season has been qualifying and Lloyd and his team, backed up by experts from Manor Motorsport were looking to put that right, but a gamble on tyres and some bad luck with a red flag robbed him of his best chance. Harry Lloyd the team boss said "We had 2 sets of tyres for qualifying and we were in about 5^th place on the times and we sent him out on a new set halfway through the session hoping to go even better, but he didn’t get any luck with the traffic, and we dropped out of the top ten." Even so in a series of fighting drives from poor grid positions, Hywel pulled up to 9^th place in race 1 and finished 7th in race 2 to rack up some useful points. In race 3 Hywel was confident of an even bigger score but had to be content with another 9^th place after almost stalling on the grid and getting away almost last.

To climb up to 9^th with a field of 30 of the worlds top young drivers, was no mean feat and he was rewarded with coveted Sunoco Driver of the Weekend Award. "It’s a big boost for the confidence knowing that if the car is working well then we can produce the results. We’ve turned a corner this weekend, hopefully." The points gained from the last 4 races has catapulted Lloyd up the points table and he now only 2 points behind his old sparring partner Jay Bridger, with 12 races to go. The Championship is currently lead by Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne

In a hectic spell for the young Welshman, the F3 Championship returns to the UK for a meeting at Thruxton next weekend with Silverstone the week after that..

For more on Hywel Lloyd and his CF Racing team go to http://www.f3racing.co.uk