Will Bratt has taken the lead in the 2008 FIAT Spanish Formula 3
Championship standings after securing his first career F3 podium at
Spa-Francorchamps this afternoon, Saturday, 31st May.
Climbing onto the rostrum after only his third race in Formula 3, the
20-year-old from Banbury now heads into tomorrow afternoon’s fourth round of the
season with a one point advantage over Bruno Mendez and is a further point ahead
of erstwhile leader Victor Garcia.
Having taken his first ever F3 pole position earlier in the day with a
truly stunning lap some seven 10ths of a second clear of his nearest rival, Will
didn’t make the best of starts in his EmiliodeVillota.com Motorsport F308
Dallara but fought back well to finish in third position, just nine 10ths of a
second shy of second place at the chequered flag.
 “It’s fantastic to be on the podium but I had hoped to try and get my first
win today after taking pole position”, said Will at the end of round three, “I
didn’t have the best of starts, it wasn’t as bad as the one I had at Jarama but
still not great. I dropped to fourth but managed to fight back into third and at
the finish the top three were all very close.
“Considering the circuit is still new to me and I’m learning all of the
time I’m still pretty pleased with how today has gone. The bonus is to be
leading the championship after three races. There’s still a long way to go as
far as the title goes but it’s nice to be on top this early in the
season.”
Conditions for today’s encounter were quite cold and foggy. In actual fact,
rain did start to fall over the back part of the circuit during the last couple
of laps but thankfully the moisture didn’t cause any problems. Reflecting on lap
times in the race, Will’s best came on his fifth tour and was a time of 2m
19.314 seconds (180.964 km/h).
Leaping from sixth in the championship heading into this weekend’s event at
the home of the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix to the top of the standings
thanks to today’s podium, coupled with a bonus point for pole position, Will now
plans to consolidate his lead tomorrow afternoon during round four of the
season.
With the top six finishing order from the first race of any given FIAT
Spanish F3 weekend reversed to form the first three rows on the grid for the
second encounter, Will lines up in fourth position for round four. The action is
scheduled to begin at 15.35 (local time) tomorrow, Sunday, 1st June.
2008 Provisional FIAT Spanish F3 Championship Driver Standings
(after Rd3):
1st Will Bratt, 21pts; 2nd Bruno Mendez, 20pts; 3rd
Victor Garcia, 19pts
|
