Perfect F3 Weekend for Asmer
13
August
2007
Marko Asmer took his second race win and fastest lap of the race to
score maximum points at Silverstone to go with the two pole positions
he secured yesterday. Maro Engel finished second for the second time
today, while Greg Mansell went one better than this morning to secure
his second podium finish in British F3 with a demon start from 5th
on the grid.
Sergio Perez also made it a perfect weekend for himself and his T Sport
team to move ahead of 'Frankie' Cheng, who finished second in race
2, in the National Class. Hamad Al Fardan also did the double, with
the young Bahraini driver taking his second podium finish.
Race
Once again it was Marko Asmer (#7 Hitech) who got a clean getaway from
pole position to lead the 29 car grid into Copse for the first time,
with Maro Engel (#23 Carlin) in tow. However it was Greg Mansell (#50
Fortec) who got the best start, moving ahead of Rodolfo Gonzalez (#9
T Sport) and Michael Devaney (#15 Ultimate) before the first corner
to move into 3rd as the field headed down to Becketts.
Atte Mustonen (#26 Raikkonen Robertson Racing) also got a good start
to get ahead of Gonzalez and get on terms with Devaney at Becketts.
However the Finn suffered another trip across the grass as he tried
a little too hard. This allowed Gonzalez to move back up behind Devaney,
who in turn started to catch Mansell as the two leading cars moved
away from the rest of the field. However by lap 4 Mansell had managed
to break away from the Irishman as he struggled to fend off the Venezuelan
driver behind him.
Mario Moraes (#4 Carlin) was judged to have jumped the start and was
served with a drive through penalty which he did on lap 5. Walter Grubmuller
(#6 Hitech) was forced into the pits with a puncture, which was swiftly
changed and the Austrian was back into the fray. Salman Al Khalifa
(#77 T Sport) was also another retirement when he slowed across the
line while holding 3rd place in the National Class.
Sam Bird (#3 Carlin) and Alberto Valerio (#22 Carlin) were fighting
for 7th place with the English driver having a look on the inside at
Abbey on lap 11 but the Brazilian wasn’t going to give way. Valerio
pulled away and got right up behind Sebastian Hohenthal (#5 Fortec)
and swept past the Swede into Becketts. Bird tried the same move but
couldn’t pull it off and fell into the clutches of Stephen Jelley
(#1 Raikkonen Robertson Racing), who got the run on the Carlin Dallara
into Bridge Corner and Bird found himself in 8th at the half way point
of the race.
At the front Asmer had opened up a 3.3 second gap to Engel and was
pulling away at three tenths per lap. Engel was also able to do the
same with Mansell in 3rd, holding a comfortable gap to the English
driver. However as the leaders started to lap the backmarkers Mansell
saw an opportunity. As the blue flags waved to warn the slower cars,
Engel got caught up behind one of them which allowed the Fortec Dallara
to get on terms with the second placed car. But it wasn’t to
be as Mansell got caught up in the same traffic as Engel and as the
race entered the final lap the gap had reopened to two seconds and
the opportunity to attack had passed.
At the flag it was Marko Asmer who took the maximum number of points
from the weekend, posting the fastest lap of the race on lap 9. The
Estonian finished 6.7 seconds in front of Maro Engel, who in turn finished
2.6 seconds ahead of Greg Mansell.
Asmer now holds a commanding 84 point lead over Maro Engel, who moved
ahead of Sam Bird in the championship table. Asmer needs to score one
more point than Engel in the next two races at Thruxton in two weeks
to secure the 2007 Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series
title.
Sergio Perez now holds a 31 point lead in the National Class title
race over ‘Frankie’ Cheng with six races, and 126 points,
remaining.
SRO
See 2007 series calendar for British
F3 Championship
Related Story 08.08.2007 - Who Will Be British F3’s ‘Top Gun’ at Silverstone?
