King second keeps his title hopes alive

Jordan King refused to let an uncharacteristically off-colour qualifying performance defeat him in the fourth outing of the 2012 Formula Renault Northern European Cup (NEC) at Assen in the Netherlands, as he battled his way to a brilliant rostrum finish that has kept his title hopes very much alive.

An unaccustomed 14th on the grid for race one, the Stoneleigh driver salvaged something from a potentially disastrous situation by forcing his way up to eighth at the chequered flag.

From a rather more representative fourth on the grid, race two the following day would happily go significantly better.

“The track had cleaned up quite a lot by then, which made it slightly easier to overtake off-line,” said the 18-year-old.

“I got a really good start to move immediately up to second, but then I spent too long trying to find a way past the leader, which probably cost me the win, in hindsight.

“I eventually managed to overtake him, but in so doing I ran wide on the exit of the corner and because he had been holding me up for so long, the pack behind had caught us and a couple of other drivers were able to take advantage of my loss of momentum to pass me.”

King eventually wound up second and took comfort from the fact that he finished as the top British driver and ahead of the championship leader.

Next up is the Red Bull Ring - formerly Austrian F1 venue the A1 Ring - where King will arrive lying second in the drivers’ standings, 33 points adrift of the leader.

“The gap to the championship leader has increased a little, but I’m not too worried, to be honest,” he said.

“It’s far from irretrievable. We’re on the back foot slightly so we need to consistently beat him now, but I know we’re capable of doing that. We’re very much still in contention.”