Friday, May 9, 2008

Perez eyeing title after first win

Perez eyeing title after first win

Sergio Perez is eyeing the British Formula 3 title after his team T-Sport scored their first outright victory in the series at Croft last weekend.

Perez's victory in the first race on Sunday was the team's first overall race win in five years in the series, and also the first win for a Honda-powered car since Christian Bakkereud's win at Mugello in September 2006.

Perez, who won the National Class title with T-Sport last season, now leads the championship by four points.

"I'm so happy to be the one to give T-Sport their first win because they've worked so hard for it. They might be a small team but they're as good as anyone. It's great to show that the Honda is as good as the Mercedes too."

With the first win out of the way, the Mexican is now targeting the title.

"Our aim isn't just to win races now, we want to win the championship."

Despite Perez leading every lap of the race, it was anything but calm on the pit wall.

"That was the longest half hour of my life," said team boss Russell Eacott. "When it's a wet but drying track the grip is changing every lap and it's so easy to make a mistake and throw it all away. But whatever Seb threw at him, he could respond and pull the gap back out.

"It doesn't matter what happens now, we've done it. We've achieved what we set out to do when we had the crazy idea of starting a team. It was a long time coming but you have to have everything in place.

"The best thing is that we genuinely had the pace. There were no other circumstances to the win, he was just quicker than everyone else. Of course we'll be thinking about the championship now, but this is just one win. It's a long, long season and we need to keep getting results."

Eacott also believes the victory showed that smaller teams and the Honda engine are capable of winning races in the series.

"It's important that we can show that T-Sport and Honda can beat the other teams and their Mercedes'. We knew we had a capable driver in Sergio from last year, but he also knew everything about us. We didn't need to sell ourselves to him, or convince him that the package could win, he knew it already."



  • Perez quickest in practice at Croft
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