(Le Vigeant, France) - The young French-American Emmanuel Crouvisier has continued his excellent progression in his first year in single-seater racing by qualifying 2nd for the first race of the weekend and finishing just short of the podium. Although being the third quickest during the first race, he ceded two positions to finish 4th overall, just 1.7 seconds behind the third place car at the end of the race. Having qualified a bit farther back due to transmission problems for the second race, the misfortunes continued into the race as Crouvisier was hit in the first corner and again in the middle of the race while passing for position, thus relegating him to 7th overall with an ailing car when the checkered flag fell.

The first qualifying session was phenomenal for Crouvisier, who was able to time a cool-down lap followed by a hot lap to post the 2nd quickest time just as the checkered flag fell. At the end of the session, Crouvisier commented, "Everything came together for this session. The car felt really good and I was able to get out of traffic to get a really good run at the end. After a slow cool-down lap to ensure that the Michelins were at their optimal temperature, I went flat out in the final lap of the session and it worked!" The young Frenchman Romain Despres was the lone driver ahead, proving once again that the championship is still far from over!

The second qualifying session did not go as smoothly however, as a number of yellow flags prevented an early fast lap, followed by a recurring transmission problem which caused a hiccup in the final hot lap. With only one-tenth of a second separating Crouvisier in 6th from the 3rd qualifying position, he was confident that with a good start to the second race, he would be able to quickly slot himself into the top three. After discussing the transmission problem with the La Filière FFSA engineers, his mechanic, Aurélien, went straight to work to pull apart the transmission to fix the problem ﾖ a job very much appreciated as the gearbox was perfect from that point on!

Starting from the first row, Crouvisier had a better start than Despres, but Despres refused to give up his position without a fight. Just off the line, Despres moved immediately over to the right to block Crouvisier. At the same time, just behind Despres was Julien Menard, who also had an excellent start and was able to move alongside Crouvisier. Although Crouvisier had more speed on the front straight before the first corner, he was boxed in by Despres in front and Menard on the left, forcing him to back off the throttle well before the first turn. Menard quickly took advantage and was able to take control of the race. While Crouvisier continued to battle with the two leaders, Julien Poncelet and Loïc Duval were able to capitalize on the situation by getting closer to Crouvisier, and were both finally able to get by. On the fifth lap, Crouvisier took advantage of a mistake made by Poncelet and was able to regain his 4th position, which he retained until the finish. Although a bit disappointed, Crouvisier confirms that the performance was promising for the future, "Of course itﾒs a shame to miss out on the podium after being so close, but having run at exactly the same pace as the current championship leaders shows that Iﾒm entirely capable of challenging for wins. Hopefully everything will come together for the next race.."

The second race was not yet that time, however. Crouvisier had another superb start, and was able to pass Malo Olivier before the first turn, and take to the inside of Brice Aracil. The first turn is actually a double right-hander, and while Crouvisier was entirely alongside Aracil going into the second part of the corner, Aracil turned into Crouvisier at the apex. In order to avoid a catastrophic accident, Crouvisier made the wise choice to brake and limit the damage, which consisted of a damaged wheel and a bent front wing when Aracilﾒs car made contact. Without the downforce on the front, the car pushed badly through the fast chicane, and allowed Olivier and Florent Tafani to catch up to Crouvisier after two more laps. Both cars were able to pass Crouvisierﾒs ailing car, but he refused to give up. After getting a good run out of the last turn before the hairpin, Crouvisier pulled alongside Tafani on the inside going into the "trop tard" turn. While it appeared that Tafani had left just enough room to make the pass, he carelessly turned into the corner while Crouvisier was already alongside the curbing, thus forcing both cars to come to a stop. This time, the damage was even more severe to Crouvisierﾒs car, as the other side of the front wing was destroyed in the incident, as well as a part of the suspension. Nonetheless, the battle raged on, and with Tafaniﾒs car being less damaged than Crouvisierﾒs, was able to again pass the French-American three laps from the finish. Crouvisier did his best to stay behind Tafani, and when the latter ran a bit wide in the last corner before the final lap, he did not miss his opportunity to regain the position, just barely holding off Tafani all the way to the finish.

Crouvisier is the only driver in the Formula Campus Renault Elf series to move up in the championship standings as the season reaches its midpoint. After an excellent qualifying position for the first race and a very strong finish, there is no reason for the trend to not continue throughout the next eight races. With a podium finish just on the horizon, be sure to follow up with this young star in the making in two weeks, for the two races at Le Mans on July 6 and 7.