September 21 st, 22 nd, 23 rd Magny-Cours in France hosted the seventh round of the 2007 World Series by Renault Championship

Friday 21 st, Free Practice

The first of two 45 minute sessions started early on Friday morning with the temperature around 5-6°C. The team started with the same basic setup from the official test at Magny-Cours earlier in the season. However the underlying problem was with the cool morning temperature, Clivio could not work any heat into his tyres, much was the same of the second 45 minutes session which was a little warmer but Clivio still had the same problem with his tyres. “The car seems to be fine, we found a good setup here when we tested earlier in the year but because of the low temperatures I could not get the best from my tyres in both sessions. When we tested here the temperature was about 30°C! We have a few things to work on over night for qualifying, I am sure we can move up from P17.” Said Clivio.

Saturday 22 nd, Qualifying

“We looked at a lot of data overnight into how we could make the tyres work better using the first practice set up.” Said Clivio, “I used one setup from the early season test and my team mate used another setup. He was running in the first qualifying session and he went quickest!” In the second session Clivio hit the ground running, only losing his provisional fastest time when Molina (Pons Racing's) moved ahead after twelve minutes. After Molina set his time the fight for pole position was down to Clivio and Ben Hanley (Prema), as the pair traded fastest times. Clivio put an end to the dispute by setting the pole time with a minute left on the clock, as Hanley was left to fend off the attentions of Fauzy (Cram). “After my team mate set his time I wanted to change to his set up but we didn’t have time so we just adjusted my tyre pressure to what he was running. I put a lot of effort into the lap to get the time, I was on the limit everywhere and this is the best result possible for qualifying, an all-RC front row with me on pole position.”

Saturday 22 nd, Race 1

“We had to take a gamble on the setup because the Magny-Cours circuit was drenched, so we went for a full wet setup and after three reconnaissance laps the car felt good.” Said Clivio who made a perfect start from pole position as his RC Motorsport team mate Marco Bonanomi, struggling for traction from his front row grid position, fell behind Hanley into the first corner. “I had a great start, no wheel spin and I was leading going into the first corner, pulling out a four and a half second lead by lap three but from lap five I developed a brake problem which took all my confidence from the car, every time I selected 2 nd gear my rear wheels locked so I tried to drive around the problem, I didn’t use 2 nd gear, but then the problem also moved to the 3 rd gear as well. I tried changing the brake balance but that didn’t work. It made me panic as I thought I wouldn’t finish the race.”

The fight for second place between Clivio and Davide Valsecchi was the highlight of the race. Clivio’s determined style combined with rear brake problems, made a recipe for several spectacular slides.

On lap five Hanley caught Clivio and two laps later the pair ran nose-to-tail over the start-finish straight, Hanley aided by a small mistake from Piccione into the Lycee. Struggling with his brake dramas, Clivio repeated the error at the completion of the lap and Hanley seized his chance. Once behind, Clivio had to contend with the thick wall of spray from the leader's car. “As the race went on the rain and mist got worse, especially when we were catching backmarkers, it was like driving with my eyes closed!”

Despite Clivio’s team making the fastest pit stop on lap 12, it was not enough to prevent him falling behind Valsecchi once the Italian driver had returned to the track from his pit stop on lap 14. “After the pit stop it was almost impossible to drive, I was just aquaplaning everywhere.” Said Clivio.

Clivio then took up the pursuit of Valsecchi with vigour, the bright red RC car following so closely in the Epsilon Euskadi's car's wheel tracks to be rendered barely visible. The worsening conditions finally got the better of Piccione's reactions at the Imola chicane, where he pirouetted into the gravel on lap 20, settling the battle in Valsecchi's favour. “After going off at the Imola chicane a number of times I decided to take it easy and finish the race, P3 and the first podium of the year, I was on the edge for every lap.”

The weather reduced the race from the scheduled 27 laps to what should have been a time-limited 25 laps. The conditions caught out much of the field, and just 12 of the 30 starters finished on the lead lap.

Sunday 23 rd, Race 2

Following the first race results Clivio started P8 for the second race. At the start Hanley jumped the lights to get an advantage over Clivio moving him to 9 th place but Clivio re-passed him going into the first hairpin, in the same manoeuvre he passed Pavlovic into 7 th position with 6 th position just down the road. On lap two the safety car came out as the result of Razia spinning with the race resuming on lap four. As the field stretched out down the long straight to the first hairpin Clivio made a move on Van de Garde, moving to the inside line and then being forced to the outside. “I got a run on Van de Garde running down to the first hairpin, he forced me to the outside so I tried to overtake him by going round the outside. However, he forced me on to the grass and I couldn’t get a good exit out of the corner which put me down to P8.” Continued Clivio, “after that everyone just seemed to follow everyone as we were all running the same pace. I was waiting for someone to make a mistake as no-one could overtake, after the excitement of the first race, this race seemed pretty calm.”

Due to Ben Hanleys jump start he received a 25 second penalty promoting Clivio to 7 th position in the final race standings.

“It was good to score a lot of points and have a good weekend, for myself and the team, with a pole position and podium. I hope to have a strong finish to the end of the championship.”

Clivio’s next race will be at the Estoril circuit in Portugal on the weekend of 21 st October, 2007.