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Tander gets first pole of season and Caratti first of F3 career in Sydney |
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Saturday, 02 February 2008 |
Leanne Tander today scored the
first point of the 2008 Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship by taking
pole position for race one to be held at Eastern Creek tomorrow.
In
another first, West Australian driver Nathan Caratti scored his first career
Formula 3 pole thanks to a stunning effort in qualifying held for race two,
snaring the top spot in his Opes Prime Team BRM Dallara after the chequered flag
had flown in a dramatic end to the session.
 Tander was able to bank her best lap – 1m24.0969 – early in the session but then
had to wait as her nearest rivals whittled down their laps to get close to her
time.
Kiwi Earl Bamber and Nathan Caratti came close – both were less
than two-tenths from pole at the end of the 20 minutes – but Tander was left
with enough space to claim the first championship point of the 2008
season.
”I’m really happy, we made a lot of changes to the car overnight
and it worked,” she enthused.
”The track changed a lot overnight so we
had to work out changes to the car to suit how we thought it would be, and it
paid off. We’re really happy to come out of the box and put it on pole, it’s an
ideal start to the year.” She said.
Tander went on to qualify fourth for
the second race to cap off a solid day for the TanderSport team.
The
afternoons session saw times dramatically slower than the first thanks to the
amount of A1GP rubber laid down, however the session was even more competitive.
After 20 minutes of fluctuating results and tumbling times, Caratti
snatched pole position after the flag had flown, bumping his team mates Earl
Bamber back to second and third, respectively, and taking the top spot by a
meagre .075s.
The stunning result gave Opes Prime Team BRM their first
ever 1-2-3 in qualifying, locking out almost all of the front two rows of the
grid.
”It was a great session and I was just able to get the lap in the
end,” he said.
”I’m very pleased. We need to do the job tomorrow in the
race but it’s been a good day to get a pole and a second.”
Earl Bamber
was in the box seat to claim the top spot before Caratti dropped him to second,
the 17-year old Kiwi sensation missing out on his first pole by less than one
tenth of a second in just his first round in a Formula 3 car.
A bitterly
disappointed James Winslow was the third of the BRM runners and held the top
spot for a moment in the second session, before traffic hindered a run that
potentially could have put him on pole.
”I’m pretty angry because I was
on a lap my dash showed that was three-tenths quicker than my best, which
would’ve been enough for pole position but then traffic ruined it,” he rued. “I
could’ve been on pole, but instead I’m third. The slower cars just ruined
it.”
Neil McFadyen qualified strongly today despite still lacking setup
and development time with his new Piccola Scuderia Dallara F307, scoring sixth
and fifth overall today a solid return on their hard work since the car turned
its first laps yesterday.
Mat Sofi (Total Developments / Transwest
Racing) scored results the exact mirror of McFadyen but was pleased to be closer
to the pace today following issues throughout practice yesterday.
”We had
a sticking throttle that, when I took my foot off, would stop at 50% throttle
which was costing us time,” he said.
”We didn’t quite get the results we
wanted today but given the problems yesterday we’re happy to be near the front.
The team is doing a great job and we’re pretty close to the front so I think we
can challenge.”
In the Opes Prime National Class a pair of Chris’ split
the pole honours, 18 year old Reindler giving TanderSport a pair of class poles
in the first session whilst Gilmour was the man to beat in the second.
Reindler crashed heavily just after setting his fastest lap in the first
session and his team worked strongly to get it back on track to enable him to
qualify for the second race tomorrow.
Gilmour’s performance was a return
to form for the affable Queenslander after a difficult day in practice.
Fellow Queenslander Andrew Mill was similarly impressive in the F3
Trophy Class (For ’01 model cars), with a performance that included a stunning
13th outright in qualifying two.
Two, 13-lap races will be contested
tomorrow to fight out the opening round of the 2008 Kumho Tyres Australian
Formula 3 Championship
For more information head to
www.formula3.com.au
Qualifying 1 Results:
1.
Leanne Tander 1:24.0969
2. Nathan Caratti + 0.1492
3. Earl Bamber +
0.1609
4. James Winslow + 0.4044
5. Mathew Sofi + 0.4201
National
Class: Chris Reindler 1:26.1294
Trophy Class: Andrew Mill
1:28.5049
Practice 2 Results:
1. Nathan Caratti
1:26.3211
2. Earl Bamber + 0.0759
3. James Winslow + 0.3146
4.
Leanne Tander + 0.4982
5. Neil McFadyen + 0.8029
National Class:
Chris Gilmour 1m28.6628
Trophy Class: Andrew Mill 1m30.1189
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