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Double podium for Al Khalifa at Spa |
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
Bahraini
racing driver Salman Al Khalifa continued his return to form at the
weekend by claiming a double National Class podium in the British F3
International Series’ visit to Spa-Francorchamps.
The
Manama born racer finished second and third at the famous Belgian
circuit in what was the best performance of the season so far for the
2005 Formula BMW Asia champion.
Race 1
Having
worked hard in practice with his T-Sport race engineer to find a good
base set-up, Salman held the provisional class pole for much of
Thursday’s qualifying session before his best time of 2:17.784 was
bettered by just eight one hundredths of a second by Jay Bridger.
Starting
second on the grid, Al Khalifa made a superb getaway and passed Bridger
around the outside of turn 1 to take the lead. He also overtook
Championship Class runner Ricardo Teixeira in the opening corners and
spent the next few laps defending his lead from a charging Stefan
Wilson in second. On lap 7, the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner
managed to force his way past at Les Combes, and although Salman
pressured him to the chequered flag, he was forced to settle for a very
respectable second place finish.
Race 2
Salman
qualified fourth in class for race 2, less than a second behind pole
sitter Bridger, and again made a good start as he avoided the chaos of
a first corner collision at La Source. Having picked his way past the
wreckage of several Championship Class cars, Salman was quickly on the
tail of the lead battle as the top four in the National Class fought
nose to tail.
A tussle with Wilson for third place saw the pair
fighting side by side on the exit of the legendary Eau Rouge corner
before Salman’s pass on the English driver in the latter stages of the
race saw Al Khalifa take his third consecutive F3 podium and enact
revenge having missed out on his first victory in race 1 to the same
driver.
Salman: “Spa is one of my favourite tracks and
this has been a very enjoyable weekend. In both races I was fighting
side by side with other cars at incredibly high speed through Eau Rouge
and it was an amazing experience. Two podiums is a good reward for the
team and I’m looking forward to carrying that momentum on to the next
round at Silverstone, which is another circuit I love.”
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