First Eurocup victory for Charles Milesi

As a springboard for all young drivers aiming for motorsport careers, the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup celebrated the very first success for Charles Milesi. Demonstrating real progress and a good fighting spirit, the French R-ace GP team had the honour of achieving pole position in one of the two races and winning at the legendary Silverstone circuit by taking the first French victory of the season in Eurocup. Charles is back in the fight for the championship, as well as in the ranking of the top rookies.

On Pentecost weekend, Charles Milesi had the difficult task of learning the Silverstone circuit, during the third round of the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2018. Despite this, he joined the top five during Free Practice, reducing clearly the gap to the fastest in the second session. Qualifying confirmed his potential, with the third fastest time of his group. “Charles did a good job of development, both with the team’s technicians and on the track,” commented Julien Abelli of Simumotion, the organisation that closely follows Charles Milesi’s career.

First race without change

Forced to start from 7th place instead of 5th in Race 1, because of a penalty received in the previous event at Monza, Charles maintained a solid performance, but could not gain positions. “The standard is very high this year in Eurocup,” continued Julien Abelli. “No one made a mistake and overtaking proved impossible because of the small time differences between each driver. In fact, the top eight finishing order was exactly the same as it was at the start!“

A rookie on the top step

As it was since the beginning of the meeting, the weather was still sunny on Sunday at Silverstone, as well as the morale of the driver at Thibaut De Merindol’s R-ace GP team. In the second Qualifying session, Charles Milesi achieved a magnificent performance by taking pole position for Race 2. “I really focused on my driving, trying to make a perfect lap and it paid off. Overtaking was not very common during Race 1, so it was important this time to start from the front row,” confessed Charles.

At the wheel of his 210-horsepower car, the 17-year-old rookie made a perfect start and was already a second ahead of the pack at the end of the first lap. Faster than his pursuers, including his team-mates at the R-ace GP team, he won masterfully after more than 30 minutes of racing, with a solid lead of two seconds.

“It’s great to win at the third meeting of the season. I felt really comfortable in the car and managed to keep up the pace!“
Disappointed at not having scored more points at Paul Ricard and Monza, Charles Milesi rebalanced his score by climbing to 7th overall and 5th rookie. “This is an important victory for me just before Monaco’s prestigious event. The circuit is radically different, it’s a new challenge that will not be easy, but I’ll try to stay on this positive spiral.“

© Photo Renault Sport