Alex goes further ahead at Motorland-Aragon

Alex has extended his lead again in the crucial fourth round of the French Monoplace Challenge at Motorland Aragon.

The sixteen year-old Hobart driver scored two wins and a second at the 5.3km Spanish circuit, one of four cross-border rounds in the seven-round series for Formula Renault 2.0 cars.

As a result his lead has grown from to 47.5 to 53 points.

Alex qualified fastest of the 25 drivers, and started all three races from pole position.

While he wasn’t headed in the first heat and cleared out to win by nearly six seconds, a tardy start in the second heat forced him to settle for a close second place behind his main series rival Gilles Heriau.

Alex showed his class in Race 3 by recovering from third place after clipping a kerb while leading on the second lap.

He quickly repassed Alexey Chuklin, and then sat on Heriau’s tail looking for an opportunity to pass.

It came on the second-last lap, and after regaining the lead he went on to win by nearly one and a half seconds.

Alex was delighted with his strongest performance in the series so far.

“In Race 1 I got a good start and was able to make a gap on the field until a Safety Car bunched us up.

“But my car felt great, and after the restart I built a good lead while managing my tyres for the next two races.

“In race 2 I was second into the first corner, and after another Safety Car I didn’t have time to attack.

“But second place was still fine for the championship.

“My start from pole was fine in Race 3, but on lap two I hit a ripple strip a little too hard.

“Although I just managed to keep the car on the track, the slide dropped me to third place.

“It was looking tough to get back to the lead from there, but once I made it up to second the car felt fine and I soon caught Gilles, who didn’t make it easy for me to pass.

“With slightly over a lap to go I managed to get through, and opened up a small gap by the finish.

“This was a great win, not just for me but for my TS Corse team who worked incredibly hard to give me a car that was perfect all weekend!

“Thanks to my sponsors back in Tasmania for their support “.

With the next Monoplace Challenge round not until September (Mugello, Italy), Alex will return home to see his family and friends, work to secure funding for the remaining rounds as well as his 2017 racing program.