Alex Morgan and the SV Racing (SVR) team persevered through a demanding maiden outing in the Renault Eurocup Clio Championship – part of the World Series by Renault programme – at Motorland Aragon near Alcaniz, Spain (26-27 April).

Morgan faced an uphill struggle to hone his technique and learn the intricacies of the highly-technical, undulating and scenic Motorland Aragon circuit, while also adapting to a rather different style of racing in the super-competitive Eurocup Clio Championship on unfamiliar Michelin rubber.

The lengthy 5.34km lap made optimising setups during the short free practice sessions an impossible task for Danny Buxton’s expert SVR outfit.

However, progress was made with a great deal of perseverance and hard work from both team and driver, despite having no data or previous experiences to reference.

After some frenetic action and an intense, race-long battle with Olivier Jouffret, the Reading-domiciled Welshman finished Round 1 (Saturday 26 April) on the cusp of the top ten in 12th position, while Spaniard Oscar Nogues used his local knowledge to take the spoils.

Round 2 was held over 25 minutes in temperatures of 24 degrees Celsius on Sunday (27 April) and a swift start saw Morgan scythe through the middle of the pack and snatch two places on the initial dash to Turn 1, also benefiting from contact involving Mikel Azcona and Josh Files between Turns 3 and 4.

Morgan was in a large gaggle of Clios headed by fifth-placed Facundo Della Motta for most of the race, but was compromised by skewed tracking that was a result of a collision with Composit Motorsport’s Nikolay Gryazin.

Positions continually changed hands as the race progressed and Morgan shadowed the recovering Files in the latter stages to break into the top ten on the final lap at the expense of Gryazin and Salvatore Arcarese.

“I found my first outing in the Renault Eurocup Clio Championship to be a massive challenge because the circuit was very long and technical, and finding a setup with such little time to test was incredibly difficult,” said Morgan. “SV Racing had no data or reference point so it was guesswork initially, particularly on the Michelin tyres, which are different to what we run in the UK Clio Cup. We couldn’t have been more on the back foot if we had tried!

“Having said that, we persevered a lot and really progressed during the weekend. I felt comfortable in the second race until my car was damaged and I’m not disheartened at all, as I think we did a fantastic job considering where we started against the opposition; most are far more experienced in the Eurocup and we know we’ll be much strong going forwards to the Nurburgring and Paul Ricard."

SV Racing Director, Danny Buxton, added: “Alex is right when he says the team was on the backfoot, but we all knew that would be the case going into the event and that’s why I thought finishing anywhere inside the top eight would be good. It was a hard weekend and Alex had to do a lot of adapting, particularly in terms of his driving technique. For example, exceeding track limits was far more acceptable among the Europeans, so Alex had to change his approach and we soon saw him matching the top five for pace, which was encouraging.

“What really helped was working directly with Alex over the course of the three days, because it strengthened our relationship and helped us understand how we tick. That’s only going to be beneficial for his UK Clio Cup campaign. The level of competition was extreme and the lack of track time prior to the races problematic, particularly as it takes so long to bring the Michelin tyres up the temperature. However, it was a fantastic experience and I honestly cannot wait for the next round at the Nurburgring.”

For more information on the Renault Eurocup Clio Championship, please visit the official www.worldseriesbyrenault.com website, ‘like’ the Facebook page or follow @WSR_Live on Twitter.

And for more on SV Racing, please visit the new www.svracing.co.uk website, 'like' the team's Facebook page or follow @SV_Racing on Twitter.