French
Tristan Gommendy wins F3 GP Macau 2002
Reigning French
F3 Champion Tristan Gommendy (22) in his Dallara 3/02 Renault-Sodemo
was the winner of the prestigious F3 event in Macao. "I'm absolutely
delighted", he said after the race. "I'm so overwhelmed,
I'm just not able to say what this victory will mean for my career.
Anyway, this is a fantastic success for me and my team ASM and is
definitely important for my career. But I don't know if it will
be enough to lead me in F1"
Runner-up behind
the French was 21 year old Finn Heikki Kovalainen (Dallara 3/02
Renault-Sodemo). "The full course yellow phases have disturbed
my rhythm a little bit", Kovalainen, this year third in the
British F3 Championship, said later. "After the re-start in
lap eleven I just wasn't able to keep Gommendy behind me. He was
directly in my slipstream when we braked in the right-hander Lisboa.
So he was faster and could pass me. Until then I believed in my
chance to win the race, as there were only four more laps to go."
Japanese F3
Champion Takashi Kogure (Dallara 3/02 Mugen-Honda) came third. A
big achievement, as he had started the race only from eleventh position
in the grid.
For drivers
of the International German F3 Championship instead the prestigious
event wasn't a good weekend. Kousuke Matsuura, runner-up in the
German Championship, was strong in qualifying (pole after session
one and third after session two) and finished the first race on
Sunday morning in sixth position, but had to retire in the main
race after a close encounter with his countryman Yuje Ide, who pushed
whim nearly into the barriers. After he had to drive through the
dirt, Matsuura slightly touched the barriers in the 'Lisboa', spun
shortly later and at the end of the lap his race was over after
contact with the harbour wall. "I don't even know if I have
touched the barriers at Lisboa", he said. "But from this
moment my car felt rather strange. It is a real pity as my car was
great before and I wasn't racing for third place but to win."
So it was Italian
Vitantonio Liuzzi (Team Carlin Kolles, eighth place) who was the
most successful representative of Germany's F3 Championship in the
Macao grid this year. "It was a great race and big fun",
he said later. "This is a crazy circuit you can't compare with
any other track. And I might have achieved an even better result
hadn't I had this accident in the first practice session."
Dutch Robert
Dornboos (Team Ghinzani) came tenth at his Macao debut but was convinced
that he might have done by far better. "My car was so good,
I might have even made it on the rostrum. After my great start I
was close to Gommendy, when Matsuura touched me slightly. Off I
went into the emergency exit of Lisboa - and returned on the track
far behind. But I'll be back next year as I like the track and want
to achieve my deserved rostrum result."
Wile there were
further competitors from the German F3 Championship (Portuguese
Cesar Campanico, the Swiss Racing Team), no German driver was in
the Grid of this year's Macao F3 GP. So we will have to wait at
least one further year before a German driver might be the successor
of Ralf Schumacher, who was in 1995 the last German winner of this
event so far, Sascha Maassen (1994) and Jörg Müller (1993).
2003 will be
the 50th anniversary of the Macao Grand prix and the organisers
are planning to invite all former winners. Further it is planned
to organise a race with historic racing cars one week before the
Grand Prix.
Official
Press Release, German-Formula-3-Association
www.formula3.info / formula-3.net
-da/ko, 20.11.02
|