|
Brendon Hartley won Round 16 of the 2008
British F3 International Series at Spa passing Sergio Perez on the last lap
after fighting his way back up from 5th after being delayed at the
start after pole position holder Oliver Turvey was stranded on the
grid. Nick Tandy scored his first ever British F3 podium finish after
briefly leading on the opening lap.
Jay Bridger took his fourth
National Class win with a last lap move on Steven Guererro. It was a
triple podium joy for the T Sport team as Salman Al Khalifa took his second
podium finish of the weekend.
After being fastest all weekend in free
practice, in qualifying and winning Round 15 Oliver Turvey was hopeful of
making it a clean sweep at Spa as he lined up on pole position for Round
16. However the Mercedes engine in the back of his Carlin Motorsport
Dallara had other ideas and as the lights went out to being the race
Turvey’s car ground to a halt causing the cars behind him to take
avoiding action. Luckily nobody hit the hapless driver but it did shake
up the order with 5th placed Nick Tandy and 6th place
Sergio Perez exiting La Source in 1st and 2nd
respectively. Perez harried Tandy all the way through Eau Rouge and up
the hill to Les Combes, with the Mexican overtaking the Mygale before the
corner and then Jaime Alguersuari deciding to have a look down the inside of
Tandy as well but the Englishman held onto second place.
Behind these the front runners John Martin
and Walter Grubmuller collided at La Source with the unlucky Atte Mustonen
getting caught up in the mayhem, putting all three cars into retirement.
Another casualty was Sam Abay who limped into the pits with a punctured front
left tyre after a clash with Marcus Ericsson. Abay rejoined after
receiving replacement Avon rubber but his hopes of his first podium finish
after qualifying third were completely dashed.
Meanwhile back at the front it was Perez,
who was 1.7 seconds ahead of Tandy, Alguersuari, with fourth placed Ericsson
coming under pressure from Brendon Hartley who had lost out at the
start. The New Zealander swept past the Swede’s Fortec run
Dallara into Les Combe and the Red Bull driver set off after his teammate to
try and take third, which he duly did two laps later.
Round 16 will a race that Ultimate
Motorsport will want to forget in a hurry. Michael Devaney’s
Mygale slowed to a halt on the outside of Turn 13, bringing out the yellow
flags on lap 2 and then on lap 4 both Alistair Jackson and Ricardo Teixeira
were given drive through penalties for corner cutting, which dropped both
drivers out of points scoring positions.
Another retirement was Kristjan Einar,
pulling his Carlin Dallara off the track with one wheel off the ground.
Lap 6 saw Brendon Hartley close the gap to Tandy
and he chased the Mygale through Eau Rouge and up the hill trying desperately
to use the superior speed of his car to drag past the British Driver.
However Tandy had learnt a trick or two from his Formula Ford days and
defended his position vigorously and as they went into Les Combes Tandy was
still holding second place.
Meanwhile in the National Class Jay Bridger
had got a fantastic start ending the opening lap ten places higher than his grid
position however Steven Guerrero had also got a great start and was catching
the class leader on every lap. Bridger held on until lap 7 when
Guerrero made his move and swept into the class lead.
Hartley was still trying to get past Tandy
and on lap 8 he succeeded and once clear of the Mygale he pulled away to
start closing the gap on Perez. The Mexican held a 2.4 second lead but
the New Zealander cut this by 0.7 seconds a lap and by the penultimate lap
was right on the tale of the Honda powered Dallara.
Further back Henry Arundel had managed to
get past Max Chilton for 6th place early on in the race and pulled
away as Chilton came under pressure from Daniel Campos Hull in the Invitation
Class Dallara and Philip Major’s Fortec. Chilton held on until
lap 8 but lost out to both the following drivers at Les Combes. Campos Hull
soon closed the gap to Arundel, passing the English driver on the final lap
to finish 6th overall and making up for the disappointing first
race in which he failed to finish.
Hartley was right on Perez’s tail as
they crossed the line to being the final lap. The two cars were side by
side out of Eau Rouge and up the hill for Les Combes with Perez holding the
inside line. It looked as if Perez was going to hold on but Hartley left
his braking to last possible second. His timing was perfect and he
swept past his rival and into the lead in possibly the move of the
championship.
Hartley pulled away and by the time he saw
the chequered flag he was 1.3 second ahead. However Perez waved his
arms in the air to his T Sport team on the wall, obviously pleased to finish
on the podium at what had been a very difficult weekend for him. Nick
Tandy held off the attentions of Jaime Alguersuari to claim his first podium
finish, while 4th place was god enough to give the Spaniard a
slender one point championship lead over Perez with six races remaining.
The National Class battle was just as
exciting. On the penultimate lap Salman Al Khalifa managed to pass Round 15
winner Stefan Wilson to claim the final podium position but the real fight
was at the front as Steve Guerrero and Jay Bridger crossed the line nose to
tail to start the final lap, with Bridger getting a good run to reclaim the
lead at the right moment to take the chequered flag and extend his
championship lead.
The next two races are at Silverstone on
Saturday 16 August, with the next two races on the streets of Bucharest in
Romania the following weekend. With just 22 points separating the top
four drivers and 126 points still on offer, the 2008 British F3 International
Series title race looks like going down to the final race at Donington Park
in October.
|
