Friday’s free practice was dominated by electrical problems, causing the engine to cut out and severely restricting Ollie and his team mates seat time. The BMW Motorsport engineers worked hard alongside Ecurie Ecosse and Barwell Motorsport to find the cause of the problem, which was huge relief for the team ahead of qualifying.

With 57 cars on the track for qualifying it was difficult for anyone to get a clear lap but with the car now without trouble, Ollie made the best of it. On new tyres Ollie tried to find as much space as possible to put in two consecutive flying laps and immediately put in two very quick sectors only to be held up by a slower car on sector three, costing him time.
Starting the race in 30th position the team elected Andrew Smith to do the first stint in what can only be described as treacherous conditions. After 55 minute’s Ollie took over the car which was now in P50 and immediately began to make his way through the field. Lap after lap with consistantly quick times Ollie set about making up places and after a 70 minute stint, ended up P15 for team mate Joe Twyman to take over. Joe had a very solid stint in drying conditions and eventually brought the car home in 21st position, 11th in the Pro-Am Class.

‘That was my first ever GT race, my first endurance event and the first time I have driven the BMW Z4 GT3 in the rain – and I loved the lot! I was on a mission the whole way through my stint and when my engineer called me in for the driver change I just wanted to stay out there! It was a great performance by the whole team and I really hope to be out with them again at Silverstone.’

Ollie hopes to compete in the next race at Silverstone on the 2nd June 2012.

“This is a great opportunity for me to join Barwell Motorsport and Ecurie Ecosse and to drive the awesome 515 bhp BMW Z4 GT3 car. It is an incredible race car to drive and handles beautifully, I immediately felt at home and confident during my test at Silverstone and knew instantly that I would be able to drive the car to its limit. I’ve done a lot of laps around Monza and know the circuit well so hopefully I should be on the pace straight away. The high profile Blancpain Championship is going to be very competitive so I feel it’s a great place to start my GT career.”

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Ollie says, ‘I’m over the moon to get this opportunity and really looking forward to taking place in the shootout at Silverstone. I’m planning to test in the car before the end of the month and I feel very confident making the switch from single seaters to GT cars, which is where I see my future’

‘It was a big decision to call a halt on Formula Renault UK, which wasn’t made overnight and although I’m disappointed not to finish the season on a high, I’m sure, under the circumstances, it’s the right thing to do. Unless you have an unlimited budget a career in single seater racing is now almost impossible to achieve so realistically I would have switched to GT racing soon anyway. We just haven’t had the pace this season and after my last race at Oulton Park the car, which was on hire, was stripped down and it was found that I had a cracked chassis which would affect the handling and performance considerably. I’ve been racing since I was eight years old and I know what’s needed to win so I’m really looking forward to a new challenge in a completely different racing environment. I’m already getting a lot of good advice and starting to get interest from teams so hopefully I will make a decision and start testing soon in preparation for next season.” Watch this space!

‘Although the results aren’t brilliant I felt we definitely made some progress this weekend and ended up on Sunday closer to the pace. The team are working hard on the car and I am working on consistency so hopefully this will result in race wins soon. Although this is not the start we were looking for there is a long way to go yet and if we can turn it around soon we can be where we should be and challenging for the championship.”

In race one on Sunday morning Ollie had his usual good start, immediately putting pressure on forth placed man Oliver Rowlands until claiming his place around the outside at Druids. From then on all he could do was hold this position for the full 24 laps to the chequered flag and claim fastest lap and a new track record. Race two in the afternoon was much the same, again making a very quick start off the line and taking fourth position from Will Stevens at the first corner where he remained to the chequered flag.

“It wasn’t an ideal weekend for me and the Manor guys but considering the position we were in after qualifying I have to be happy to come away with some decent points on the board. Unusually all the Manor drivers struggled for pace yesterday and I had to push the car like mad to get as far up the grid as I could and two fifths was all I could manage. The team changed the complete setup of the car on Saturday evening and although it was better on Sunday this is a very difficult circuit to overtake on so all in all I have to be happy that I moved forward in both races. I’ve picked up some useful points this weekend and there’s a long way to go to the end of the season. Myself and the team know we have a lot of work to do before the next race at Donington Park but I’m confidence we will be back on the pace and challenging for the championship when we get there.”

“We’ve had some really strong pre season test days and although we’ve been constantly trying different set ups on the car I’ve consistantly kept myself at the sharp end of the time sheets knowing there’s more to come. Myself and the team know what we’ve got to do and we intend to give it our all to acheive it. I’m really looking forward to this year and although the grid numbers are down I’m expecting a competitive championship, which I’m very used to from winning championships in karting. There are some quick guys out there but we intend to be quicker.”

“I had two very good days testing here with the team and topped the times three out of the five sessions I drove in. After the  two official tests (4 days) so far I’m happy with the way things are going and I know there’s more to come. My quickest time in the final session was made with a couple of errors so for sure I would have gone even quicker without them. I will just keep working on it until I we get the perfect lap. We move onto Silverstone National and Arena circuit next Tuesday and Wednesday where I intend to carry on where we left off today and be the quickest again.”

“I’m over the moon that we’re doing Formula Renault with Manor Competition again this season and I can’t wait to get back in the car. Testing gets under way this week at Thruxton and although it’s not an official one all of the teams will be there and it’s a good opportunity to see where everyone is as far as pace is concerned. My new manager Mike Perry is doing a great job and with Tony and Sarah Shaw and my great mechanic Sam also behind me I’m sure I have the best team in the paddock to succeed.”