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The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same - Top Trio On Podium Again At Albert Park |
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Sunday, 18 March 2007 |
It may have been the same top three at the end, but it was a very different – and in many places dramatic - race in this afternoon’s third Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 race at Albert Park in Melbourne.
Once again it was Tim Macrow, Charlie Hollings and Marco Mapelli on the podium, but it took eight hard-fought laps for them to guarantee their positions at the end of the day.
Yorkshire’s Hollings made the best start, leaping from second on the grid to the race lead by the first corner in a repeat of Friday’s storming run to the opening turn.
Hollings and Macrow then engaged in a game out cat and mouse at the
head of the 30-car field, both seemingly having fast race cars yet
neither able to gap the field behind as they diced for the race lead.
After mounting pressure on the race one winner through the first four
laps, Macrow got a strong run out of turn ten on the sixth lap of the
race and drafted Hollings down the high speed back stretch.
The draft was enough to propel Macrow to the inside line into the high
speed turn 11, the Victorian assuming the lead with one of the quickest
overtaking moves of the day.
Despite holding close to Macrow for the remaining laps Hollings was
unable to make a dent on the #29 Team BRM Dallara, that eventually won
it’s second race of the weekend.
Behind the leaders a massive dice for the minor positions unfolded throughout the eight lap affair.
After holding third early, Italian driver Marco Mapelli ceded the
podium position to a hard-charging Karl Reindler on lap four, the two
BRM entries racing hard but fair around the 5.3km Albert Park circuit.
Behind them Astuti Motorsport’s Austrian ace Walter Grubmuller
continued to bounce back from a disappointing start to his weekend in
Melbourne by making it a five-car freight train between the top five
cars as today’s race unfolded.
Reindler looked set to work his way onto the podium until the final
lap, when his #4 car spun around exiting turn four, the West
Australian-born 2004 Australian Formula 3 Champion barely missing the
cars trailing him as he spun into an eventual seventh position.
“I had to push so hard just to stay with the guys in front,” Reindler said afterwards.
”The back end just broke out and I spun.”
Mapelli secured the podium finish ahead of Grubmuller and a flying
James Winslow, who set the quickest lap of the race on the penultimate
tour.
The British drivers’ 1m50.96s lap was just one-tenth outside the existing lap record held by Bruno Senna.
”The clutch was slipping at the start which is why I was so slow away,” Winslow explained.
”It’s frustrating because after that the car was fast, like it was
yesterday. I’m about ready for the luck to turn around because when it
does we will be hard to beat.”
A fast-finishing Leanne Tander rebounded to finish sixth today, leading
home Karl Reindler and Chris Alajajian – who was once again forced to
drive from the back of the field after his late-race spin yesterday.
The continually impressive Dillon Battistini and fellow Asian F3 driver Phillip Forsman, from Sweden, completed the top ten.
It was a difficult day for a number of the visiting Asian F3
competitors, Finnish driver Henri Karjalainen (Team Goddard) coming
together with his team-mate, Moreno Soeprapto, just a few laps from
home.
Both finished the race but forfeited a potential top ten finish due to the accident.
In the end, however, it was Tim Macrow who took his second win from three starts this weekend in another commanding performance.
“I made a terrible start – I had too many revs and sat there with the
wheels spinning for what seemed like 30-minutes,” Macrow said this
afternoon.
“I started pegging Charlie back in the next couple of laps and was able to get a run on him and get by.
“It’s a fantastic feeling to get another win – it’s been a really good
weekend for us and I hope to be able to make it three wins tomorrow.”
He said.
Hollings was philosophical in defeat for the second time in two days.
“The car was great at the start but it just dropped off a bit at the end,” he said.
”Tim had a bit more straight line speed than us and was able to get by.
We have had two seconds and a win so it hasn’t been a bad weekend, but
I’d certainly like to get back on top tomorrow.”
Tomorrow’s fourth and final race of the weekend will be held at 10:30AM
and will be telecast live on the Ten Network around Australia.
For more information head to www.formula3.com.au
RACE RESULTS – Race 3 (8 Laps)
1. Tim Macrow (Team BRM)
2. Charlie Hollings (Astuti Motorsport)
3. Marco Mapelli (Team BRM)
4. Walter Grubmuller (Astuti Motorsport)
5. James Winslow (Team Opes Prime)
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