Two race wins and a second placing at Mugello in Italy have put Alex Peroni another step closer to winning the Monoplace Challenge title.
The sixteen year-old Hobart driver dominated at the Italian circuit, one of four cross-border rounds in the French-based Formula Renault series.
Alex qualified on pole position for the first two races but had one time deleted by the stewards and had to drop back to grid seven in race two.
“In qualifying my fastest two laps were good enough to give me pole position in the first two races, but unfortunately one of them was deleted because the stewards said I’d exceeded the track boundary.”
Alex won the first two races, however the second victory came at a cost.
After starting seventh, he had to work his tyres harder than normal to fight through to the lead.
Despite starting the third race from pole position, Alex relinquished the lead to Ukrainian Alexey Chuklin.
Nevertheless he top-scored for the round and extended his championship lead over Frenchman Gilles Heriau from 53.5 to 112.5 points with two rounds remaining.
Afterwards Alex was elated to have gone further ahead in the series.
“My car felt great from the first practice session,” he said.
“Having one lap time deleted put me back to seventh on the grid for the second race.
“I didn’t think I was doing anything different from everyone else, but I had to accept the officials’ decision.
“In the first race I got a great start and pulled out a gap on the first lap.
“From then on I concentrated on managing the gap while looking after my tyres, knowing that in the next race I’d have to drive hard to recover from the fourth row on the grid.
“In race two I got a decent start and managed to get up to fourth place on the first lap with some aggressive passing moves.
“I worked hard to close the gap to Gregoire Saucy in third place, and passed him just before the Safety Car came out on lap three.
“That put me right behind the leaders, and a couple of laps after the restart I passed David Droux for second place.
“I was looking for an opportunity to pass Alexey Chuklin for the lead, but he made it easy for me by running wide on a corner!
“The third race was really tough. Even though my two wins put me on pole, my rear tyres had very little grip left.
“There was no way I could fight for the win; it was all I could do to survive in second place.
“Now I have a good points lead in the championship, but with two rounds remaining I still have to give 100 percent in every race.
“Thanks to my TS Corse team for their superb car preparation, and my supporters for enabling me to continue racing in Europe,” Alex said.
2016 MONOPLACE CHALLENGE POINTCORE AFTER ROUND 5*
1. Alex Peroni (AUS) 713
2. Gilles Heriau (FRA) 600.5
3. Alexey Chuklin (UKR) 480
* subject to official confirmation
ALEX PERONI’S RESULTS FOR ROUND 5
Qualifying: Pole
Race 1: 1st
Race 2: 1st
Race 3: 2nd
ALEX PERONI’S SERIES STATISTICS
Race wins: 8 from 15
Podiums: 13 from 15
Pole positions: 2 from 5
NEXT ROUND
October 7/8/9 – Magny Cours (France)
