Friday, September 12, 2008

Alguersuari capitalises for race two win

Jaime Alguersuari scored his third victory of the season Sunday's British Formula 3 race at Bucharest to keep his title hopes alive with one event remaining.

Alguersuari took the lead on the first lap when Oliver Turvey ran wide at the first corner defending from Brendon Hartley and delayed them both.

Turvey maintained second but Hartley dropped to fifth and had to fight his way back past John Martin and Max Chilton, but he got both in one move at the last corner.

All three were side by side down the straight, with Hartley on the inside and Chilton on the outside both sweeping past Martin. Chilton tried to chop into the corner but Hartley was already there so he aborted and cut the roundabout.

Chilton rejoined ahead of Martin but lifted on the main straight to give the place back, but the loss of momentum also allowed Esteban Guerrieri to come through and Sergio Perez was all over the back of the Hitech car as well.

Perez harassed Chilton for a few more laps until he got a good run down the main straight and moved ahead around the outside. Chilton tapped the back of Perez as the Mexican braked in front of himand his nose kept pushing the back of the T-Sport car until it spun.

Perez was then collected by the unsighted Ricardo Teixeira, which brought out the safety car, and Chilton had to pit for a new nose.

The safety car closed things up at the front and after the restart, Hartley set about finding a way round Turvey. He looked to be quicker, but save for a bit of darting around in the mirrors, he couldn't get close enough to make a serious move.

Turvey was also able to keep his pace up enough that Alguersuari couldn't get away, and 1.1 seconds covered all three as they crossed the line at the end.

"I knew my teammates were a little bit faster than me but I was still able to win," said Alguersuari. "The championship is still very close and we'll see what happens at Donington, I hope to be able to win there."

Martin lost fourth place when he spun and crashed at the right-hand kink and that promoted the Mygales of Ultimate Motorsport teammates Esteban Guerrieri and Michael Devaney to fourth and fifth.

Walter Grubmuller completed the top six, while Oliver Oakes passed Sam Abay for seventh four laps from home.

Stefan Wilson claimed his fourth National Class win of the year with ninth place overall, ahead of Hywel Lloyd and Jay Bridger.

Pos Driver Car Time 1. J.Alguersuari Dallara/Mercedes 30:43.123 2. Oliver Turvey Dallara/Mercedes + 0.642 3. Brendon Hartley Dallara/Mercedes + 1.121 4. E.Guerrieri Mygale/Mercedes + 10.113 5. Michael Devaney Mygale/Mercedes + 12.233 6. W.Grubmüller Dallara/Mercedes + 12.891 7. Oliver Oakes Dallara/Mercedes + 19.853 8. Sam Abay Dallara/Mercedes + 21.858 9. Stefan Wilson Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 23.258 10. Hywel Lloyd Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 23.546 11. Jay Bridger Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 24.735 12. Marcus Ericsson Dallara/Mercedes + 26.124 13. S.Al-Khalifa Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 36.642 14. Steven Guerrero Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 38.568 15. Henry Arundel Dallara/Mercedes + 39.163 16. Max Chilton Dallara/Mercedes + 54.934 Retirements: Driver Car Laps John Martin Dallara/Mercedes 15 Atte Mustonen Dallara/Mercedes 13 Philip Major Dallara/Mercedes 12 Sergio Pérez Dallara/Mugen-Honda 7 Ricardo Teixeira Mygale/Mercedes 7 Fastest lap: Hartley, 1:13.361 on lap 7

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