Jack Clarke is leaving Italy tonight – on a very delayed plane – wondering if his luck will ever change!  A fraught weekend in which the young Surrey-based driver had pace and great race craft but effectively produced no rewards and has left the driver and his team struggling for answers.

Jack was always on the pace in testing for rounds five and six of the FIA Formula Two Championship and was destined to be a front runner.  His first qualifying session was hampered by a slower car and an inability to find a ‘tow’ for his quick lap and he found himself lining up ninth on the grid.  A characteristically good start in the race saw him running sixth after the first two laps and challenging for fifth when a lunge from behind from Samarin (using his boost) punted the unsuspecting Clarke off the track and out of the race half way through.

A furious Jack Clarke began to wonder when things would start to improve.  “I was defending my line – which is my right – and I moved to then right and he boosted while he moved to the right and that was that.  It was looking like a good fourth or fifth place which would have been fairly respectable.”

The second qualifying session followed the first race and Jack’s car was speedily repaired and on the track.  He felt the balance was wrong but persevered and was disappointed to find himself 14th on the grid and everything to do in the race.

“The car was not reacting as I wanted it to after the shunt in the first race and we didn’t have a lot of time to sort out the balance so I was up against it.  14th was not going to be an easy place to start.”

He was to take an excellent start and found himself running sixth after two laps and challenging for a strong finish.  A small incident with Danish driver Jokinen at the start caused some minimal damage to Jack’s car but it was not until half way through the race that he started to really feel the problem.  “I had no stability through the corners and no traction out of the corners.  The instability just got worse and worse until the car was almost impossible to drive.  I went from challenging to fifth to struggling to stay on the track in a matter of minutes.  I decided not to retire as I need the track time and just struggled on to the flag in a lowly 13th place eventually.  It was a really hard blow after the promise I have been showing but the Formula Two guys have looked at all the data and realised there are some major problems with the car.  It will go back to the HQ in Bedford and they will ‘set it down’ and try and work out why this happened.  Everyone is working very hard to make sure I have the best possible set up for Zolder in four weeks time.”

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 to Zolder in Belgium in four weeks time – June 18, 19, 20.