FORMULA Renault UK driver Will Bratt made a superb return to the cockpit of his Scorpio Motorsport-run car at Croft Circuit, outpacing the winter championship regulars during testing at the North Yorkshire venue.

Although not taking part in this season's winter series, the 18-year-old from Adderbury took the opportunity to join Scorpio for the test session ahead of Saturday's third and fourth rounds of the championship and served a strong reminder of his pace by topping the times in his Apotex Pharmaceuticals-backed car.

Bratt's fastest time of the day, using unofficial timing, saw him lap the challenging 2.1-mile circuit in 1min 17.4secs, approximately three tenths of a second clear of the 2006 Formula Renault UK Winter Championship front-runners.

The teenager, who finished the main Formula Renault UK Championship eighth overall in the standings with one race victory at Oulton Park to his credit, was joined in the Scorpio ranks by 2005 Formula Ford Festival winner Duncan Tappy and the pair helped the Loughborough team take the top two places on the timesheets.

Bratt said: "It was great to end the test fastest overall. We made some steps forward with our set-up at Silverstone during the last two rounds of the season and the team has continued to make good progress.

"Our pace in the Croft test confirms the changes are the right way forward. Although we only spent about an hour and a half on track in total we made valuable use of the time and I think we proved our position as genuine front-runners in Formula Renault UK."