McIntosh opens World Series Account with Fourth and Sixth Place Finishes

Courtesy Stuart Morrison Public Relations

Round 3 – World Series by Renault, Istanbul Park, Turkey Sean McIntosh, #6 Team KTR, Race 1 – Qualified: 14th / Finished: 4th (8 points)

Sean McIntosh opened his World Series by Renault points account today with a skillful drive to fourth place in Race 1 of the weekend’s double-header event at the 5.430km Istanbul Park Circuit in Turkey, the 21-year-old Canadian, racing for the Belgian Team KTR squad, collecting eight championship points for his efforts.

Race 1, Qualifying (Pole – Andy Soucek, 1m39.874s) Having comfortably been amongst the front-runners in Friday testing, Sean’s qualifying run proved to be a less productive affair with the set-up of the car a little too aggressive in chasing down those extra tenths of a second. Running in the second of the two twenty-minute qualifying sessions this morning, McIntosh ended up posting the seventh fastest lap time from his group with a 1m40.794s, good enough for 14th on the grid but a red flag half-way through the session disrupted proceedings and a potential hot lap from Sean.

Race 1, 17 Laps (Winner – Andy Soucek, Interwetten Racing) From his seventh row grid slot McIntosh successfully steered clear of incident as mayhem reigned at the first of Istanbul Park’s 13 turns. Six turns into the opening lap and the Canadian racer was up to eighth place and looking strong. Sean kept his cool despite the 30c degree heat but the same couldn’t be said of some of his on-track rivals. Reveling in his most competitive World Series outing to-date, Sean capitalized on the mistakes of others while fighting his own battles.

Having climbed to fifth McIntosh hounded Enrico Toccacelo for fourth and on lap 11 the Italian succumbed to the pressure and ran wide at the first turn allowing Sean to seize the position which he defended held all the way to the checkered.

Sean McIntosh - #6 Team KTR: “It’s great to finally score some points and be up there finishing where we belong. The balance of the car was great, it lasted the full race distance and I set the fourth fastest race lap which was a bit of a turn around from the frustration of qualifying. We’re not going to risk too much for tomorrow but we’ll focus on qualifying higher then aim for a podium.”

Sean McIntosh, #6 Team KTR, Race 2 – Qualified: 13th / Finished: 6th (5 points)

Sean McIntosh backed up his maiden World Series by Renault points scoring run to fourth place in yesterday’s opener at Istanbul Park with another strong top-ten performance today as the Canadian claimed sixth at the end of the 23-lap Turkish charge.

Race 2, Qualifying (Pole – Pastor Maldonado, 1m39.530s) Sean improved his qualifying slot by one position from yesterday’s 14th place grid effort but once again the pace in his Formula Renault 3.5 wasn’t as competitive expected, his best lap in the session a 1m40.444s around the 5.430km, 13 turn facility. Unable to get the #6 KTR entry to respond as he’d have liked to a new set of Michelin tires, McIntosh’s qualifying frustrations were off set by the speed he demonstrated during the previous race.

Race 2, 23 Laps (Winner – Alvaro Parente, Victory Engineering) Targeting another top-ten finish McIntosh picked up two spots on the first lap before making his way to tenth prior to his mandatory pit-stop. The team made an early call as soon as the pit-lane was open at the end of lap five and a lightening stop by Sean’s KTR crew fired the 21-year-old up into eighth once the 30-strong field had cycled through.

From there McIntosh found himself locked in a pack of cars being held up, and blocked, by the slower, damaged car of eventual runner-up Mikhail Aleshin. At one stage Sean leapt to third but unable to secure the position he dropped back to fifth and looked good for the spot until James Rossiter passed him on the final lap, McIntosh collecting five more points to sit 11th in the series.

Sean McIntosh - #6 Team KTR: “I’m really pleased to come away from Turkey with a good points haul. This is such a competitive championship, as we’ve seen again this weekend, hundredths of a second make a real difference in qualifying and while we struggled a little in that department we showed we had front-running pace in the race.”