2004
Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship - Round 21,
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, September 10th/12th
© Stella-Maria Thomas and Lynne Waite
Race
Report:
Weather: Dry, sunny.
After a somewhat eventful morning, the 21st round of the 2004
British Formula Three Championship finally got underway a
little late on Saturday afternoon. And the result - the minute
the starting gantry lights went out - was instant chaos. Most
of it was down to Nelson A Piquet (Piquet Sports), who was
on pole, and set to try and claim the championship under his
father's watchful gaze. Except that the minute the race started,
Piquet simply didn't as he stalled the engine. By the time
he got moving almost everyone else had gone, Clivio Piccione
(Carlin Motorsport) making the most of the opportunity he'd
just been presented with to shoot into the lead. Unfortunately,
Nicolas Lapierre (Opel Signature Plus) thought he'd like the
lead too and the result was a fit of wheel banging at the
top of Eau Rouge that left Lapierre in the barriers and Piccione
in the lead. Piquet, meanwhile, was trying to recover, but
instead managed to spin and lose even more ground, while Lucas
di Grassi (Hitech Racing) spun at Les Combes and also plummeted
down the order. Piccione was now coming under large amounts
of pressure from Adam Carroll (P1 Motorsport), the latter
trying to get ahead of James Rossiter (Fortec Motorsport)
in the title chase - though realistically the best either
of them can really hope for now is 2nd to Piquet. Certainly
Carroll seemed to have the faster car, and was trying all
sorts to get through.
Meanwhile Alvaro Parente (Carlin Motorsport) was having a
rather lurid time, which evolved into a bit of a moment at
Pif Paf. He sorted it out quite well, but the chaos wasn't
over yet. Rossiter was busy taking himself out of the running
by throwing his Dallara into the gravel, while Piccione continued
on his way, leading from Carroll, and Danilo Dirani (Carlin
Motorsport), Marko Asmer (Hitech Racing) and Danny Watts (Promatecme
F3). Behind them Greg Franchi (Opel Signature) was the sole
survivor in the Invitation Class, running in 6th with the
recovering di Grassi just behind. The first lap wasn't even
over when it all went seriously pear-shaped at the back end
of the field, mostly thanks to Fairuz Fauzy (P1 Motorsport),
who'd picked up a puncture at the start but was still on the
racing line. Piquet came up on the Malaysian as they reached
La Source, Fauzy panicked and spun, clipping Ryan Lewis (T-Sport)
and giving the Scholarship Class champion a right rear puncture.
In addition, Stephen Jelley (Performance Racing) and Adam
Smith (Alan Docking Racing) were involved, Jelley ending up
trapped underneath Smith's car. The resultant blockage meant
that the Safety Car had to be deployed, while the wreckage
could all be cleared away and Jelley extracted from the accident.
The English driver was a mite surprised to find: "suddenly
there's a car on my head!" He admitted that his first
though was that if he could just push the ADR car off, he
could get going again. Score +10 for optimism and around -100
for common sense there. The car was a mess, which was an appalling
shame after the amount of work the Performance team had done
getting it repaired. Smith was seriously annoyed at being
wiped out by someone else's accident, and his carefully considered
opinion of Fauzy can't be reproduced in a public forum of
any kind. Suffice it to say, he wasn't at all impressed with
the Malaysian.
For the next four laps the remaining runners sat behind the
Safety Car, with Piccione leading from Carroll. Dirani was
3rd from Watts, Asmer, Franchi, di Grassi, Will Power (Alan
Docking Racing), James Walker (Hitech Racing) and Barton Mawer
(T-Sport). 11th was Alexandre Negrao (Carlin Motorsport),
while the recovering Piquet was now bottled up in 12th. Vasilije
Calasan (Promatecme F3) was leading the Scholarship Class,
which seemed very unlikely, although the usual front-runners
appeared to be out of the race altogether. Certainly Jelley
wouldn't be back because one side of his car was flat (to
say nothing of the tyre marks on the steering wheel), while
Lewis was in the pits while T-Sport sorted out his dead tyre.
That left Ronayne O'Mahony (Performance Racing) 2nd (and last)
in class, while Andrew Thompson (Hitech Racing) and Parente
brought up the rear.
While the survivors trailed round like ducklings behind a
mother duck, the cameras panned round to show us a disconsolate
Lapierre gathering together the various broken bits of his
car, while somehow Rossiter had been extracted from the gravel
and was running again. He was last of course, but probably
wouldn't be for long. However, it seemed unlikely that he
would even get back into the points, unless the rest of 'em
continued to run in demolition derby mode once the race resumed.
In addition to Rossiter, Lewis was back out too, and hadn't
even lost a lap, which just went to show how very slowly the
Safety Car was going. Perhaps the driver mistook the F3s for
the hobby racers in the Palmer Audis
Anyway, when it
finally came to the moment for the race to resume Piccione
controlled the restart beautifully, making his way very slowly
over the start/finish line before flooring it. He seemed to
have it all in hand as he led the pack up towards les Combes,
but Carroll had other ideas. He seemed to be hanging back
a long way, but suddenly he was right there, and there was
absolutely nothing the Monegasque could do to stop him snatching
the lead from under his nose. Meanwhile, Dirani was having
a very hard time holding off Watts, who clearly wanted that
3rd place and was prepared to do everything he could to get
it. They were nose to tail up les Combes, with Watts all over
the back of the Carlin car.
While Piccione started to fall away from the hard-charging
Carroll, Dirani locked up and Watts saw half a chance. It
came within inches of getting through, but then found that
Asmer was trying to join in, and was now on the trail of the
battling duo. Even so, Watts wasn't that discouraged, and
as they rounded la Source he made an attempt to get up the
inside of the Brazilian, backing off only when it looked as
if he was going to end up in the pit wall if he didn't give
way. He still wasn't about to quit though; it's not as if
he knows the meaning of the word, it seems.
Meanwhile, Piquet was also on the move, and was in the points,
in 9th place in class, 10th on the road behind Franchi, who
had just been mauled by di Grassi and was probably getting
a bit fed up of Brazilians. Di Grassi set off after Power,
while Piquet started to look for a way round the Belgian.
A few places ahead, Asmer was now clinging to the rear of
Watts' car, like some sort of over-enthusiastic terrier, though
he couldn't quite find a way by, no matter what he tried.
Piquet, on the other hand, was still playing with Franchi,
and with Power, who can be - how can we say this charitably
- difficult to pass. It was vital that Piquet take no chances,
especially as Rossiter was still completely out of the running,
and looked likely to stay that way, as he was still behind
the Scholarship Class runners, having been passed by Lewis,
as the latter started a recovery drive that was in some ways
quite as impressive as anything else that was going on out
there. Considering he'd been dead last, and had made a pit
stop, he'd probably got no business being in the lead of the
class, although to be fair O'Mahony was chasing him hard.
The Irishman was probably less than happy at losing out to
the Englishman, especially after he'd gone to the trouble
of wresting the lead from Calasan once the race went live
again.
And at the front, Carroll continued on his majestic way, lapping
Rossiter with two laps still to run. Behind him, Piccione
had a lonely but satisfying run to the flag, 2nd doing his
confidence no harm after a couple of disappointing recent
races. Watts was still savaging Dirani, though the Brazilian's
nerve was holding well, while Asmer had dropped back a little,
and was beginning to watch his mirrors as Piquet stormed on
through, passing Power as Power took a place from Franchi
at les Combes. It was a bit messy, to say nothing of melodramatic,
but it worked, and Piquet was through, gaining two places
with one very brave manoeuvre. And now he was in hot pursuit
of di Grassi, who ought to have been worried and probably
was. With a lap to go, the Hitech driver was trying hard to
resist the man who has to be regarded as Champion Elect, even
if he seems not to want to take the title. He wanted that
6th place though, and duly proved way too strong for di Grassi.
With a lap to go, the lilac Piquet car was through. It was
too late for him to hunt down Asmer, but he'd made a great
recovery (though he should never have had to put in a run
like that; he should have been awake at the start).
And so, Round 21 came to an end, with a superb performance
from Carroll to claim enough points to move back ahead of
Rossiter and into 2nd in the Championship chase. Piccione
claimed 2nd place, while a rather stunned looking Dirani clambered
onto the last step of the podium, having held Watts off for
most of the race. Asmer was 5th, from Piquet, di Grassi and
Power. Franchi won the Invitation Class by virtue of being
the only remaining runner in the class, which meant that Parente
was 9th (10th on the road), ahead of Negrao who scored his
first point in his first race. Mawer was 11th, ahead of the
much more experience pair of Walker and Thompson. Lewis took
yet another Scholarship Class win, just ahead of O'Mahony,
who got the extra point for the fastest race lap. Calasan
was 3rd (and last) in class, while Rossiter was last with
absolutely nothing to show for his afternoon's efforts.
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