2004
Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship - Round 3,
Silverstone, Northamptonshire, April 17th/18th
© Stella-Maria Thomas and Lynne Waite
Changes:
Come on, you knew there'd be changes. There always are
It wouldn't be British F3 if they weren't playing musical
chairs all over the place.
Ronayne O'Mahony (Fortec Motorsport) was missing because he
needs to concentrate on academic life at present and has exams
coming up very soon. So we were one down. The numbers were
to have been increased by Marcus Marshall (Carlin Motorsport)
but he'd managed to come down with a nasty case of whatever
it was that was striking the Carlin boys down dramatically,
and after 20 laps of testing on Friday he felt so bad he knew
he wasn't going to be able to race, especially as he couldn't
even hold his head up. Rather than going out and totalling
the car, he decided to sit this one out.
We did have one new face, in the shape of Lars Sexton. The
former Formula Campus runner has been threatening to turn
up in British F3 for some time now (he was on the pre-season
entry list last year) along with Planet Racing, but it was
beginning to seem as if he - or they - might be mythical.
However, he was present and correct in the paddock on Saturday
morning after a rather trying test session on Friday, which
saw him complete a total of two laps before a fuel pump problem
sidelined him for the rest of the day.
Qualifying
Report:
Weather: Cold, dry
The track was messy at the start of the first F3 session of
the day, and it certainly wasn't helped by the Carlin Motorsport
duo of Clivio Piccione and Alvaro Parente, both of them proving
to be rather keen on spinning off. With engine problems plaguing
both of them, they ended the morning a lot further down the
order than anyone could have expected, the pair of them occupying
a lowly 14th (Parente) and 15th (Piccione) slots. It would
have looked very bleak at Carlin, had it not been for Danilo
Dirani. With the whole team down with what appeared to be
some sort of superbug ("Well, it must be, it seems to
be able to resist the amount of alcohol we threw at it")
the team were not at all happy on Saturday. Dirani at least
managed to go some way towards challenging James Rossiter
(Fortec Motorsport) for pole position. It wasn't quite enough
and the youngster took his place early on, demoting early
pacesetter Nelson A Piquet (Piquet Sports) with surprising
ease for a rookie, leaving the current series leader sitting
on row 2 for round 3. He was joined by a remarkably on the
pace Will Power (Alan Docking Racing), the Aussie seeming
to be unusually communicative in the paddock afterwards. Danny
Watts (Promatecme F3) was back on form in the rebuilt Lola-Dome,
with sponsorship from a local "gentlemen's" club
- which is ironic given that when describing Danny the word
gentleman doesn't tend to be the first one that you think
of. He'd managed to get himself between the two Championship
Class Australians, with Will Davison (Menu Motorsport) sitting
alongside him.
A rather oddly subdued Ernesto Viso (P1 Motorsport) was next
up, the Venezuelan having spent the early part of his morning
discussing what happened at Donington with the Clerk of the
Course, Ian Watson. We could tell Ernesto wasn't quite himself
when his usual greeting was replaced by a singularly polite
(and more than a little unexpected) hand kiss instead of the
normal full scale hug. Still, he was faster than team-mate
Adam Carroll, who looked seriously off the pace and was back
in 9th, separated from Viso by Lucas di Grassi (Hitech Racing).
Di Grassi may have been disappointed in his own efforts, but
he was highest placed of the Hitech boys, all of whom seemed
to be struggling at Silverstone. Andrew Thompson was next
up of the four, the Scot in 10th place. Really he should be
higher up than that this year, and certainly at Donington
it looked like his late-2003 improvement hadn't been just
a flash in the pan. Watching him at Silverstone, though, you
had to wonder whether he wasn't regressing.
In 11th was the man that was tipped for a front-runner's spot
by some (though not by us) after showing very well in pre-season
testing, Fairuz Fauzy (Promatecme F3). He's not bad, but he's
not that good either, and as soon as the pressure is on, he
seems unable to match what he can do in testing. If he really
is the great hope of Malaysian motorsport, they're in a lot
of trouble. Someone else who seems to be having difficulties
at present is Karun Chandhok (T-Sport), though part of this
is probably down to the fact that the team have made the move
from the Scholarship Class to the Championship Class along
with their driver. It's not as if Russell Eacott and the lads
aren't experienced at that level, but it's been a while, and
whatever Russell says, there are difficulties in only having
one car in each category, not least of those difficulties
being a lack of data. Whatever the cause, Chandhok was an
unhappy 12th on the grid, ahead of rookie Marko Asmer (Hitech
Racing) in 13th. Next up were the two Carlin lads, Parente
and Piccione, whose troubles have already been referred to.
Ignition problems are not what you need on a fast circuit,
but keeping out of the gravel helps too!
James Walker (Hitech Racing) is finding the learning curve
to be pretty steep at present too, and was 16th, just ahead
of the man who has so far managed to dominate the Scholarship
Class, snatching a pair of wins at Donington from under the
noses of the Performance Racing pair of Stephen Jelly and
Barton Mawer, Ryan Lewis (T-Sport). Lewis scored maximum points
at Donington and was quite obviously planning on continuing
the way he'd started. Meanwhile, Jelley was just behind him,
and not planning on continuing the way he's started, losing
out at Donington in the closing stages. It's fair to say that
Stephen has a bit of a thing about Donington at the best of
times, and these days he's convinced he won't go well there
- and we all know what drivers are like once they get those
sorts of ideas in their heads. On the other hand, he seems
to like Silverstone, and was doing some sort of rain dance
with intent to improve his chances if he could.
Mawer was further back this time, separated from Jelley by
Adam Langley-Khan (Alan Docking Racing), who is frankly far
too tall to be a racing driver, but who seems determined to
try and be one anyway. Certainly third in class wasn't going
to do him any harm, if he could just hold Mawer off when the
lights turned green. Promatecme F3's Scholarship Class runner
was next up, Vasilije Calasan having Bruce Jouanny on hand
to try and help if he could. It didn't seem to be working,
to be honest. Sexton was last but one on his debut, well clear
of Ajit Kumar (Mango Racing) who had investigated the run
off area at Copse in great detail during the course of the
morning - the spin that caused the investigation was probably
the fastest he went in the entire 30 minute session.
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