Sunday, September 14, 2008

Lancaster takes maiden F3 victory

Lancaster takes maiden F3 victory

Jon Lancaster scored his maiden Formula 3 victory in the Euro Series round at the Nurburgring today.

The Briton started behind Breen on the front row thanks to his seventh place in yesterday's race and beat the Irishman round the first corner.

He was able to control the race comfortably for the duration, despite a mid-race Safety Car period splitting the race in two.

"It's been a long time coming." said a relieved Lancaster after the race. "I had a podium at Pau and have been quick in testing, but I've not been able to put it together in in qualifying yet.

"That happened again this weekend so we've still got some work to do, but I managed to take some good points from two sensible races. I pushed quite hard from the start to get a second's lead and just had to make sure I didn't make a mistake from there."

Lancaster's ART Grand Prix teammate Jules Bianchi clinched his second podium finish of the weekend in third, with Nico Hulkenberg making it three ART cars in the top four as he reduced Edoardo Mortara's championship lead to a single point.

Hulkenberg made impressive progress through the top eight during the race after yesterday's win pushed him back to the fourth row for today's race.

He dived inside Kazuya Oshima for sixth place at the first corner on lap four and quickly chased down Prema's Stefano Coletti. He spent most of the race stuck behind Coletti but eventually squeezed ahead at Turn One on lap 19.

The first four cars were nearly three seconds up the road by this point, but Hulkenberg cruised up to the back of them and the pressure paid off as fourth place fell into his lap when Tom Dillman ran wide coming onto the back straight and Hulkenberg capitalised.

It was a near perfect weekend for Hulkenberg's championship challenge as Mortara's woe continued today.

The Italian had to start from the penultimate row after yesterday's retirement and was running in the pack when he was hit from behind by Dani Clos. The contact removed Mortara's rear wing and although he continued, he was well outside the points.

Mika Maki also gave away ground to Hulkenberg today. He started fifth today but Daniel Ricciardo, immediately ahead of him on the grid, stalled at the start. Maki tried to swerve round him but clipped the SG Formula car with his left rear wheel and retired on the spot with broken suspension.

The other title hopeful coming into this weekend, Renger van der Zande, also stalled at the start from fourth on the grid, and later retired from the race in the pits.

Pos Driver Team Car Gap 1. Jon Lancaster ART D/M 40:40.779 2. Niall Breen Manor D/M +0.723 3. Jules Bianchi ART D/M +2.008 4. Nico Hulkenberg ART D/M +2.636 5. Tom Dillmann Jo Zeller D/M +3.514 6. Yann Clairay SG D/M +7.182 7. Jean-Karl Vernay Signature D/V +9.293 8. Daniel Campos-Hull HBR D/M +13.530 9. Franck Mailleux Signature D/V +15.341 10. Jens Klingmann RC D/V +18.107 11. Koudai Tsukakoshi Manor D/M +18.964 12. Erik Janis Mucke D/M +19.975 13. Cheng Cong Fu RC D/V +22.606 14. Brendon Hartley RC D/V +24.021 15. Daniel Ricciardo SG D/M +24.621 16. Robert Wickens Signature D/V +25.049 17. Henkie Waldschmidt SG D/M +25.393 18. Richard Philippe Carlin D/M +26.084 19. Sam Bird Manor D/M +26.833 20. Kazuya Oshima Manor D/M +31.186 21. Martin Plowman RC D/V +39.618 22. James Jakes ART D/M +47.522 23. Edoardo Mortara Signature D/V +55.432 24. Basil Shaaban HBR D/M +2 laps 25. Rodolfo Gonzalez Carlin D/M +2 laps Retirements Stefano Coletti Prema D/M 20 laps Dani Clos Prema D/M 20 laps Christian Vietoris Mucke D/M 17 laps Renger van der Zande Prema D/M 14 laps Mika Maki Mucke D/M 0 laps Fastest lap, Hulkenberg 1:24.654 on lap 6 D/M = Dallara Mercedes, D/V = Dallara Volkswagen

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