Piquet sets F3 pace at Silverstone
24 May 2003
Nelson Piquet Jr continued his Knockhill form at Silverstone
today (Saturday 24 May) setting the fastest qualifying times to claim
pole position forrounds nine and ten of the 2003 British F3 Championship
gripped by AVON Tyres.
It was another impressive performance from the young Brazilian, who
quickly adapted to the unique Scottish circuit two weeks ago and did
much the same on the quite different Grand Prix layout at Silverstone
today. "I didn't imagine we would do so well after testing yesterday,"
he said. "But we made some changes and the car was really good
and I did some very good laps early in the session." The Piquet
Sports-run driver repeated the performance in the later session, going
even faster than he had done in the morning.
Qualifying second for Sunday's race was Sweden's Robert Dahlgren, his
best performance to date. His Fortec team have a good record at Silverstone
having taken Heikki Kovaleinen to victory in the 2002 British Grand
Prix support race. Also starring in the first session was Danny Watts,
a man who spends more time at this circuit than he does at his nearby
home. He had been fastest in pre-race testing but took third in qualifying.
"I'm generally happy," he concluded. "The track was a
lot different today compared to yesterday. I did a minimal number of
laps - only four quick ones - so the tyres are in good shape."
The reigning Formula Renault champion has high hopes for the rest of
the year. "I reckon this is going to be the turning point of our
season - we've made some changes to the car so it's a lot more user-friendly
and confidence-inspiring for the driver" said Danny.
A feature of the first qualifying session was that Carlin Motorsport
didn't manage to get a car in the top three. Richard Antinucci was the
best of the quartet in fourth, but Alan van der Merwe and Jamie Green
- first and second in the championship - were only sixth and twelfth
respectively. Adam Carroll took fifth on his debut for Menu F3 but felt
that he had a quarter of a second in the bag, while Will Davison pulled
out a quick lap at the end to bag seventh.
The second session followed the form book a little more closely with
van der Merwe claiming second place, citing track conditions that suited
the Carlin set-up a little better. "I was pretty sure I was in
there for pole but I was unfortunate with the traffic," reckoned
the South African. "For Sunday I'm aiming for the podium but on
Monday I'm going for the win." Antinucci took third place and Rob
Austin fourth after setting only the ninth best time in the morning.
Carroll and Watts completed the top six.
Karun Chandhok just pipped T-Sport team mate Steven Kane for Scholarship
class pole position for round nine but felt he had more to offer. "I
was a bit disappointed I couldn't maximise my pace in the first sector
of the track, I had to push really hard in the second to make up for
it," said the Indian driver. He topped the times for Monday's grid
too but P1 Motorsport's Ernesto Viso was second this time.
For more details visit www.f3-gt.com.
The next rounds in the championship are at Castle Combe (Wiltshire)
on 21/2 June 2003.
See events calendar for Silverstone
Circuit
Related Story 13.05.2003 - Nelson
Piquet Jnr to Celebrate with Drive in Father's 1978 F3 Car
