One-Two Finish for Carlin Motorsport in British F3 at a Rainy Croft

08 May 2005

Alvaro Parente picked up his first win of the 2005 British F3 International season with a superb start to finish victory in the second race at Croft.

More rain at Croft made conditions difficult for the F3 field, with a number of incidents during the race. Among those in trouble were Tim Bridgman, Danilo Dirani, Marko Asmer and Charlie Kimball, with Kimball's accident at Tower bringing the safety car out onto the track.

Despite the Safety Car period, pole-sitting Carlin Motorsport driver Parente had a clean race, keeping out of trouble in tricky conditions caused by light rain on an already wet track. With no-one else able to get close to the Portuguese driver during the 18-lap race, it appeared like an easy drive. However, he said afterwards that this had not been the case. "It was not as easy as it probably looked from the outside," he said in the press conference. "The start was great and in the race I wasn't risking much and I wasn't pushing too hard. However, I had to watch out for Christian [Bakkerud] as he was running very well."

Team-mate Christian Bakkerud finished the race in second place, securing a one-two for the Carlin Motorsport squad in only his fourth British F3 race. The Danish driver admitted he had tried to keep up with his team-mate but was pleased with second and a good result for the team. "It's a really great result for the whole team," Bakkerud said. "I tried very hard to catch up with Alvaro and luckily the Safety Car brought everyone closer together again. The conditions were absolutely horrendous, I couldn't' see a thing out there."
Third placed Dan Clarke put in a much-improved performance, after retiring from race one. Despite running wide in the Jim Clarke Esses and dropping down to 14th place on lap one, Clarke (Raikönnen Robertson Racing) managed to fight his way back to third, setting the fastest time of the race on the last lap.

Tim Bridgman looked like picking up a good result for the Hitech Racing team before he was caught out by the conditions. Starting in eighth place on the grid, Bridgman fought his way up the field and was running in fifth place, when he lost control of his Dallara coming out of the Jim Clarke Esses and ended up in the barrier. His team-mate Marko Asmer had his own share of problems. After he run wide coming towards Tower, he admitted that he hadn't made the right tyre choice. "We used the same tyres as we did in qualifying. It felt like I was driving on ice and the tyres weren't working well at all." The Estonian finished the race in seventh position.

Mike Conway was running very strongly after starting in second position, but then he had a coming together with Christian Bakkerud, which caused a front wing problem. Later on, he fought with Ryan Lewis and had a touch with the T-Sport driver too, causing damage to his front suspension. Despite this damage, Conway finished the race in 14th place.

Danilo Dirani (P1 Motorsport) had his worst race of the 2005 season so far. After starting fifth, he spun in Tower just ahead of Marko Asmer, who followed the P1 Motorsport off the track, although there was no contact between the two drivers. His spin was caused by handling problems and Dirani managed to get back into the pits where his mechanics tried to solve the problem. Out on the track again, his Lola B05/30 Mugen Honda suffered an engine misfire, which forced him to return to the pits. After a long time in the garages and more work done to the car, Dirani went out for the last two remaining laps for the race.

James Walker has one of his best showings in the British F3 Championship in today's second race. Starting in eleventh, the Fortec Motorsport driver made his way quietly up through the grid and was running in fourth place, but dropped back and eventually finished in eight place.

Ryan Lewis (T-Sport) was named driver of the race even though he missed out on a podium finish. Lewis, who started in seventh, had a great battle with Mike Conway (Fortec Motorsport). He fought his way up to third position before running off the road, although he still finished in fourth position.

Salvador Duran secured a double win today by winning the second race in the National Class as well, ahead of Barton Mawer (T-sport) and Juho Annala of Alan Docking Racing.
Promatecme driver Charlie Hollings, who spun out in race one, had another off in his home race. The local hero ran wide at Tower this time, got stuck in the field, but managed to get going again and finished in fifth position in the National Class overall.

Mike Conway is now the new Championship Class leader by seven points ahead of Danilo Dirani (P1 Motorsport) and Carlin Motorsport's Christian Bakkerud. T-sport's Barton Mawer remains in the lead in the National Class with Salvador Duran (P1 Motorsport) second and Josh Fisher (Team SWR) third.
The next round of the British F3 International Series will take place at Knockhill in two weeks time.

SRO

See 2005 series calendar for British F3 International Series

Related Story 08.05.2005 - Mike Conway Secures His First F3 Victory at Croft