Jack Clarke’s spate of bad luck continued in Morocco this weekend when the Surrey driver failed to score a single point in the two races through the streets of Marrakech through no fault of his own.  A mistake from another driver saw him crash out from third place in the first race and for the second time this season his car failed to make it to the first corner with gearbox failures in the second race.

The weekend started well when Jack showed good pace in testing and qualified for the first race in third place feeling confident that a podium was looking likely.  This hope was shattered half way round the first lap when he was clipped from behind by Italian driver Nicola De Marco and forced into a spin.  At most other venues this would not have been a major incident but the temporary street circuit of Marrakech with its limited run off areas and concrete walls is notoriously unforgiving; the car was very badly damaged and in danger being sidelined for second qualifying for the second race later in the day.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Jack.  “We all knew that we had to take it very easy in the first race to have a good car for second qualifying and I had a good start and was comfortably in third and settling into the race when an incident behind me caused a car to clip the back of mine and that was it!  To add to the frustrations I had to wait with my car for over an hour before it could be recovered which presented the mechanics with a fight against the clock to make second qualifying.”

A momentous effort from all the Formula Two mechanics meant that Jack was able to join the second qualifying session with seconds to spare.  Despite understeer and limited set up time he went on to qualify seventh.

It was all to be to no avail as the bad luck continued when on the warm up lap the hose on the pressure sensor broke on the car and he had to be pushed off the grid into the pits. The mechanics believed they had fixed the problem in the five minutes they had at their disposal and Jack was ready to start from the pits but as soon as he started the race the gearbox failed and for the second time this weekend he was forced to watch the race from the sidelines.

Despite the huge disappointment a philosophical Clarke found the positives from the weekend in his strong qualifying performance and the hope that his spate of bad luck is well and truly behind him.

The 2010 FIA Formula Two Championship moves back to Europe in three weeks time at the superfast Monza circuit in Italy - May 21-23.