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FIRST LAP CLASH DENIES ABAY ON STRONG WEEKEND |
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Sunday, 03 August 2008 |
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Carlin rookie Sam Abay had reason
to be confident going into rounds 15 & 16 of the British Formula 3 Championship
on the famed Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, after qualifying 4th and
3rd on his first visit to the legendary venue.
Sunny skies greeted the 27
competitors for race one on Friday afternoon.When the lights went out, Abay got
bottled up at the start as the cars jostled for position, ultimately losing out
to Marcus Ericsson
and Sergio Perez and dropping back to sixth. By the end of lap one Abay had pushed
his way back past Perez and was planning his attack on Ericsson. By the end of lap two the Australian
youngster had sliced past the Swede and back into 4th place, closing on the
back of championship leader Jaime Alguersuari in a battle for 3rd. That hard fought contest would last the
remaining 10 laps, but with Abay
unable find a way past the Spaniard he would cross the line in Alguesuari wheel
tracks to finish 4th.
Race two would unfortunately be a
shorter affair for the young Australian.
From
his third place grid slot, Sam Abay just managed to avoid Turvey and found
himself immediately in a battle into turn one with Marcus
Ericsson. Contact
between the two at the first corner resulted in a puncture for Abay, who had a
long drive back to the pits.
Returning to the track with a new tyre, Abay’s race was
effectively over, but the young Australian later showed his potential by
setting the second quickest lap time of the race.
"It was obviously
disappointing to have blotted my copybook in race two, but I feel we've taken
another important step forward this weekend. We've quite comfortably been towards the
front all weekend and had a particularly good chance to deliver a great result
in race two." said the disappointed rookie.
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