Piquet Takes F3 Win at Silverstone
25 May 2003
Nelson Piquet Jr scored his second successive winat Silverstone
today (Sunday 25 May) overcoming the challenge of Adam Carrollin round
nine of the 2003 British F3 Championship gripped by AVON Tyres. Piquet's
win from pole position was by no means straightforward but it did represent
the latest in a lengthening series of races that have been won by the
driver starting at the front of the grid. "I didn't make a very
good start and lost a position [to Robert Dahlgren], then Carroll passed
me at the second corner," Piquet said of his opening lap. The Brazilian
got a good run out of the Becketts complex on the second lap and regained
second place into Stowe.
Dahlgren, meanwhile, kept the lead until he was hauled
into the pits for a stop-go penalty for creeping on the grid. "I
stopped and then made a great start," said the Swedish Fortec driver.
"I thought they were going to do something but I was gutted when
I saw the stop-go board," he admitted. Piquet therefore inherited
the lead when Dahlgren pitted at the end of lap four, but his race wasn't
easy. "It was difficult, Carroll was putting a lot of pressure
on me and he got quite close sometimes," explained the 17-year-old.
Carroll impressed in his first race since Snetterton
over a month ago. "It wasn't too bad. I think if Dahlgren had been
out there we?'d have given him a pretty good run as well," reckoned
Menu F3's new signing. "I kept up quite well with Piquet although
there was a bit of a yo-yo effect, and the gap only went up in the last
couple of laps when my tyres started to go off."
Danny Watts tried to preserve his tyres to mount a late-race
challenge but it didn't pay off for the Hitech Racing man. Nevertheless,
he was as pleased with third place as ADR's Will Davison was with fourth.
"The flat battery light was on throughout the race and it really
distracted me," said the Aussie. "It was really slippery out
there and very difficult to avoid making mistakes."
Richard Antinucci was the best of the Carlin Motorsport
cars in fifth place, ahead of Rob Austin (Menu F3 in sixth). Championship
leader Alan van der Merwe was on the tyres used in first qualifying
and he reverted to the disappointing form of that session. Team mate
and fellow front-runner Jamie Green was hit by Michael Keohane's car
early in the race and handled badly thereafter - he struggled to eleventh
overall. Ernani Judice also fell victim to the Irishman, his colleague
at Promatecme.
The Scholarship class was all about Indian driver Karun
Chandhok. The T-Sport man made a good start and was pushed hard by Jamie
Green for the first lap or so. "After that I was just driving my
own race, I wish all the races could be as boring as that," quipped
Karun. "I needed that result really badly though after a poor weekend
at Knockhill." Second in the class was Steven Kane (also run by
T-Sport), but he was suffering from oversteer. Christian England steered
out of trouble to claim third place in class, the only bright point
for Promatecme.
Monday's race promises to be fascinating with Piquet
in a position to really dent van der Merwe's points lead. The pair will
share the front row and a straight fight between the two main contenders
is in prospect. The green light will be shown at around 1450hrs on Monday.
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 - Piquet
Sets F3 Pace at Silverstone
