|
A snow shower
30-minutes before the opening round of the 2008 British F3 International Series
caused a few headache for the 27 drivers as the wet track dried out during the
30-minute race. Oliver Turvey (#17 Carlin) came through to take chequered flag
after taking the lead off the line. Max Chilton (#1 Hitech) took his first ever
British F3 podium after teammates Jaime Alguersuari (#4 Carlin) and Brendon
Hartley (#3 Carlin) went off after fighting for 2nd place. Atte Mustonen
(#26 Double R) finished 3rd after starting from a lowly 10th place on the grid.
Andy Meyrick (#56 Carlin) took the National Class win, making it a double for
Carlin Motorsport.
Pole position holder
Jaime Alguersuari, who celebrated his 18th birthday on Easter Sunday,
held the advantage as the red lights went out to start the first race of the
2008 season, but his Red Bull sponsored Dallara got a slow getaway and was
passed by Oliver Turvey and Max Chilton before the first corner at Old Hall.
Turvey led the pack down the hill as behind the leaders 9th place
Nick Tandy span, breaking the nose cone of his JTR Mygale. Marcus Ericsson (#8
Fortec) also ran wide at Old Hall, dropping the Swede down a couple of places in
the running order.
As the cars heading
out to the back of the circuit, Turvey was leading but Chilton came under
pressure from Alguersuari, the Spaniard making his move to pass the 16-year-old
Hitech driver. Chilton’s teammate Walter Grubmuller (#2 Hitech), who had
qualified at the head of the second row, failed to complete the opening lap and
retired to the pitlane with a misfiring engine.
As the cars crossed
the line for the first time it was Turvey just ahead of Alguersuari. Chilton
was third but had the second Red Bull Dallara of Brendon Hartley filling his
mirrors as they began the second lap. Further back Mustonen had made a demon
start to finish the opening lap in 5th from 10th on the
grid. Esteban Guerrieri (#11 Ultimate) was another driven reveling in the
tricky conditions, the Argentine making up eight places on his lowly
18th place on the grid.
Hartley continued to
challenge Chilton and on lap 3 the New Zealander put the nose down the inside of
the Hitech Dallara as they headed into Old Hall to sweep into 3rd
place. Guerrieri continued his rise up through the order, moving ahead of
Sebastian Hohenthal (#7 Fortec) and Sergio Perez (#9 T Sport) on lap
four.
Things settled down
but the top three cars were separated by just 0.9 seconds as the they moved
ahead of the rest of the field. Turvey defended against Alguersuari, who in
turn had to watch that he didn’t leave the door open for
Hartley.
In the National Class
Andy Meyrick (#56 Carlin) got a good start from Pole but behind him Salman Al
Khalifa (#57 T Sport) made a demon start to move up to second in class ahead of
Jay Bridger (#50 Fluid). The Bahraini driver consolidated his position but it
all came to nothing as he disappeared from the timing screens on lap 5,
promoting Bridger back in 2nd ahead of Hywel Lloyd (#52 CF Racing).
For lap after lap the
top three remained glued to each other as the track continued to dry and the lap
time came down. Hartley was right on the rear wing of Alguersuari’s Dallara as
they exited Old Hall for the 14th time and as they headed out of view
the Kiwi driver seemed to be attempting to try and pass his teammate at Shell.
However they failed to come back into view and Max Chilton was now
3rdrd, just ahead of the
Ultimate Motorsport duo of Michael Devaney and Esteban Guerrieri. Australian
John Martin (#24 Double R) was just outside the points in 11th place
but took the extra point for setting the fastest lap of the race on the final
lap. followed by Atte Mustonen. Turvey now had a four second gap with
just three laps remaining. The Racing Steps Foundation backed driver held on
despite Chilton closing the gap to less than 2 seconds at the chequered flag.
Mustonen was 2 seconds further up the road in 3
The National Class
was won by Andy Meyrick in a dominant display, three places ahead of Jay
Bridger, who had the consolation of taking the extra point for setting the
fastest lap of the race in the National Class.
|
