SIMON GACHET WINS THE “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” 2011

In the outcome to the selections, Boris BOUVIER, Andréa PIZZITOLA, Jordan PERROY, Victor SENDIN, Pierre SANCINENA, Jonas RODRIGUES, Anthony MICOUD, Simon GACHET, Alexandre COUGNAUD, Thomas VERHEYDE and Amaury ROSSERO were up against each other in the semi-final. This took place on the LA CHATRE circuit behind the wheels of Formula Renault 2.0 which had previously been calibrated on new tyres by the lead instructor, Joël de MIGUEL.

The President of the Jury, Jean Pierre JAUSSAUD, drew which cars the contestants would take and they were off on an 18 lap practice session followed by two qualifiers of 8 laps each with a change of car. Mister Christian RATRON, the official FFSA licence “A” timekeeper, then calculated the best average for each contestant over five laps to determine the order of ranking.

The five best students were selected to fight out the final which took place the next day in the following order, set by their ranking:

Alexandre COUGNAUD : best average 36″499 (4th in the semi-final)
Victor SENDIN : best average 36″354 (2nd)
Simon GACHET : best average 36″252 (1st)
Andréa PIZZITOLA : best average 36″452 (3rd)
Amaury ROSSERO : best average 36″609 (5th )

It is worth noting that the lead in the eliminations was Jordan PERROY, who lost out by a 13/ 1,000th of a second, which shows how close the performance levels are for this promotion!

For the final, all the drivers used the same single seater equipped with new tyres, the best average over five laps would be used again.

At the end of the five drivers’ turns, Simon GACHET and Victor SENDIN were only separated by 55/1,000th which prompted Jean Pierre JAUSSAUD and the members of his Jury, Yvon LEON, Jean Luc Taillade, Gilles GAIGNAULT and Joël DE MIGUEL to watch them again over 3 laps with no joker.

Simon GACHET took his turn first and finished with a time of 1’49”299. Victor SENDIN came in second and finished his series in 1’49”955. Simon GACHET is therefore the winner of the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” 2011 and is awarded the bursary of € 60,000 along with the RALF TECH watch and the driver branded equipment from P1 ADVANCED RACEWEAR.

The young man of 18 was visibly moved: “I haven’t quite realised yet that I’ve won because the pressure was intense, but I’m happy and delighted to win the EUROFORMULA VOLANT. It will give me the opportunity to continue to progress in the motorsport hierarchy. I was looking at taking part in the F4 2012 French Championship but maybe this will allow me to skip a level, we’ll see.”

Laurent FRADON, Director of the EUROFORMULA school, is very satisfied: “Simon thoroughly deserves his victory especially after the second round requested by the jury. His success is without fault and richly deserved. He did not buckle under pressure. Well done and good luck to him in the next stage of his young career, and we wish him a promising one. We will follow him closely as we did with Paul Loup CHATIN this year.”

The final word goes to Jean Pierre JAUSSAUD, the President of the Jury:
“Simon didn’t buckle in the second round. Quite the opposite, he lapped two tenths faster in the three laps. It’s clear. He is the Volant 2011!”

The meeting for the final of the “EUROFORMULA VOLANT” 2012 has now been set with important and possibly surprising innovations.