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Tyre frustration thwart Hi-tech at Thruxton |
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
Hitech Racing narrowly missed out on a points scoring finish in rounds 11 and 12 of the British Formula 3 International Series at Thruxton on Sunday. The reigning champions with Walter Grubmüller and Max Chilton finished 11th and 12th in both 24-lap races at the Hampshire circuit, after tyre problems in qualifying prevented them from repeating their pre-event testing performance.
In race one, held in the morning, Walter started from the seventh row with Max just behind. At the lights, a good getaway from the young pair enabled them to move up several places and at the flag, they were on the tail of the battle for the final championship points, finishing just outside in 11th and 12th.In race two, the drivers repeated their good starts off the line and both had a steady race over the opening few laps prior to the safety car being deployed to retrieve the stranded car of Atte Mustonen at the chicane. After the restart, Walter found a way past his team-mate on the opening lap, and on the final lap, made a bid for the final championship point to no avail. At the flag, the pair again finished just outside the points in 11th and 12th.Max’s results have consolidated his second place in the Mirror.co.uk British F3 Challenge Cup, which will be awarded to the top British driver in the series at the end of the season. The 17 year-old from Reigate, one of 12 British drivers competing in the championship, is just behind Oliver Turvey in the running for the award and ahead of Andy Meyrick in third.
“I think effectively our weekend was over on Saturday,” said Team Principal David Hayle. “After the problems we had in qualifying it was always going to be difficult to make that up in the races as it can be hard to overtake here. However both Walter and Max made the best of it and once again got to the finish of the two races in one piece.“Now we have to put this weekend behind us and move forward to the next rounds. We have shown time and time again that we have the pace to be quickest in testing and both drivers have shown race pace. Now we need to convert the testing pace into qualifying times to allow their race speed to come through in the form of some good results.”Results of Round 11
1. Brendon Hartley Carlin Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:09.455
2. Marcus Ericsson Fortec Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes 27:11.751
3. Oliver Turvey Carlin Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:16.042
4. Sam Abay Carlin Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:17.657
5. Sebastian Hohenthal Fortec Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:23.254
6. Atte Mustonen Raikkonen Robertson Racing Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:25.381
11. Walter Grubmüller Hitech Racing Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:39.161
12. Max Chilton Hitech Racing Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 27:46.858
Results of Round 12
1. Brendon Hartley Carlin Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 29:29.816
2. Oliver Turvey Carlin Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 29:30.246
3. Jaime Alguersuari Carlin Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 29:32.431
4. Sergio Perez T-Sport Dallara F308 Mugen Honda 29:34.069
5. Michael Devaney Ultimate Motorsport Mygale M-08F3 Mercedes HWA 29:34.540
6. Sebastian Hohenthal Fortec Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 29:35.205
11. Walter Grubmüller Hitech Racing Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 29:40.529
12. Max Chilton Hitech Racing Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA 29:43.775
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