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Marcus Ericsson
(#8 Fortec) took his maiden British F3 pole position at his third attempt. The
joint championship leader posted a time of 1m12.733, 0.134 seconds ahead of
National Class Champion Sergio Perez (#9 T Sport) and 0.204 second ahead of
teammate Sebastian Hohenthal (#7 Fortec). Andy Meyrick (#56 Carlin) kept his
100% record by taking his third National Class pole in three races ahead of
Steven Guerrero (#53 T Sport).
A damp track caused a
bit of head scratching in the pitlane prior to the 30-minute qualifying session
for Round 3 of the 2008 British F3 International Series, with many of the teams
electing to start the session on Avon wets. Once the session got underway it
soon became clear that the correct choice was slicks and the drivers on wets
came in to change their rubber.
In the first five
minutes the grid was decidedly topsy turvy with National Class championship
leader Andy Meyrick appearing at the top of the time sheets and many of the top
10 positions being filled by other National Class contenders. However Sergio
Perez soon got things back to normal, posting a 1:14.583, which was soon
bettered by Walter Grubmuller and Max Chilton. However Meyrick was still
setting competitive times and with the session 10 minutes old the Carlin driver
was on th efront row of the provisional grid.
Sergio Perez was back
at the top of the time sheet and improved again on the next lap to become the
first driver to post a sub 1minute 13 second lap. Henry Arundel (#6 Raikkonen
Robertson Racing) spun at the final corner, bringing out the waved yellows and
bringing a temporary halt to the fast laps.
One the
sticken Dallara was removed the fast lappery continued and the times started to
tumble. With 10 minutes of the session remaining it was Perez from Esteban
Guerreri, Brendon Hartley, Marcus Ericsson and Oliver Turvey. Meyrick had
dropped back to 10th but was still well ahead of his National Class
rivals.
Sergio Perez came
into the pits and climbed out of his T Sport Dallara to sit out the rest of the
session. However with 7 minutes remaining Marcus Ericsson put in a 1m12.797s
lap, 0.070 seconds ahead of the Mexican. Ericsson then impoved the time again
to finish the session 0.134s ahead to claim his maiden British F3
pole.
Marcus Ericsson: "It
was very good but also very hard with the rain. There wasn't much grip and we
were trailing a bit in the beginning but then I got a quick lap so I'm really
pleased with everything. It is very close and this field with all of these good
drivers it's going to be tough to be up there all the time. But we're on pole
so it is really, really good."
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