The race report for Race Department's F3 series is now up. A hard and close race with Slava driving a measured and cool race being competitive and fair when defending positions in a sea of around 22 cars. Well done! I must say the only real downside to watching the Races live on Twitch (watch a replay here) is not seeing the liveries for the drivers. From race to race it makes it hard to spot different drivers as they are always in different cars. Plus as a team principle you want your cars to be shown on screen as much as possible to promote your sponsors. Otherwise this series is fantastic and having Slava entered for Vermin Racing is excellent in itself. RACE REPORT Qualifying A dull day for Silverstone for qualifying meant conditions were far from optimal. It was Oscar Williams first to turn a wheel out of the pits for what would be the start to a very busy qualifying session. Setting a benchmark of 1.55.835 which he then improved upon. It took a few fast laps from Josh Martin to topple Williams with a 1:55.308. With some drivers struggling to establish grip there were several drivers bouncing off the track as they all continued to improve their times. Williams was able to best his time and re-take provisional pole from Martin with a 1:55.285 with 9 minutes remaining in Qualifying. Whilst the top 2 battled it out, behind them the gap was over a second until Datasets closed that gap to 0.874 in 3rd. With 5 minutes to go the action began to pick up with 21 drivers setting a lap time. Williams improved his time to 1:55.285, closely followed across the line by the fast driving Jack Smith who snatched 3rd just 0.574 off of pole before improving further with 3 minutes to go and taking 2nd away from Martin. With the top 3 remaining close, Martin had one last lap to improve, although he was sadly unable to improve upon his time and would remain 3rd as the chequered flag was waved for the end of qualifying. Vermin Racing driver Potapenko managed to qualify a respectable tenth. With the top 15 covered by just 2 seconds any small improvements or mistakes could catapult you up the table or off the track. Race 1 So through the murky sky the start lights illuminated the grid for the start of race 1. Williams got a great start, headed the pack into turn 1, with Smith and Martin in pursuit. There was some contact at the rear of the field but most drivers were cleanly through turn 1 and 2. Martin took a lunge on Smith into turn 3 almost taking away 2nd place and opening up a three way battle, with Smith and Martin having to defend against Rockett who had positioned his car around the outside, finding great traction out of the corner onto the Wellington straight. Going three wide into the next corner, Smith was sandwiched in the middle, Rockett took the inside line to take 2nd, but ran wide allowing Smith to re-pass, whilst Martin held back ready to capitalise on any mistake. Side by side all the way Up to the sweeping fast corners of Maggots and Becketts, Rockett was able to squeeze past Smith for 2nd. The battle continuing down to Stowe, with Rockett and Smith defending from Martin who sniffed down the inside but had to back out of it as the gap was slammed shut. Martin then drove into Pit lane, assuming he might have had a penalty for a jump start, leaving Rockett and Smith to battle into the final couple of turns as Williams stretched out his lead on lap 1. Disaster for Smith and Rockett as Lap 2 got underway - Smith took to the inside line, trying to sweep past Rockett, but a mid-turn wobble torpedoed Smith into Rockett sending them both off track with Rockett facing the wrong way. Both were able to re-join however they were now in the mid pack right into the battle with Martin who had re-joined after his drive through, with Rockett tenth, Martin 16th and Smith 17th, the battle continued onward. Tassenoy found himself in 2nd with Gamil a surprise 3rd as the drivers settled down slightly. Cottell had a wobble in front of Potapenko and Martin, allowing both drivers past as they battled into turn 1, with Potapenko defending brilliantly only to be overtaken by the fast charging Martin into Turn 3. Behind there were further problems for Smith as he is forced wide dropping him back into the clutches of Rockett, with Lopez Vila running off track in front of them as Smith and Foerschner go side by side into Brooklands with Smith gaining the place. Diop looking to follow through made contact with Foerschner and both drivers off track and towards the rear end of the field. Rockett and Smith still close on track continued to battle past other drivers with Rockett taking 10th from Potapenko and Smith in 12 just behind the pair, Smith then tagged the rear of Potapenko. Luckily for both drivers they remained on track. Alex Hill took advantage and got past Smith. Hill having to defend from Smith both drivers were overtaken by an excellent move from Cottell who drove clean past the pair heading into Maggots. Lopez Vila tried to take position from Smith who had a huge slide through Becketts but held it to remain ahead in 14th. Hill and Cottell had slight contact rubbing body work with rubber allowing Smith to close right in on them once more. Tassenoy dropped from 2nd to 5th with an unseen incident, promoting Gamil, Ahomen and Kuisin ahead for 2nd, 3rd and 4th all within 3 seconds of each other with just over 10 minutes remaining in Race 1. As the race began to settle slightly Martin had made his way up the order into 6th driving excellently through the pack. Smith and Gungor collided with just under 8 minutes left which dropped Smith even further back. After battling up the order he now was in 19th. Martin however had made his way up to 5th, out pacing Tassenoy, who slowly slipped back to 8th after a promising first half of the race. A close battle for 11th was underway, with Hill all over the gearbox of Cottell on the start finish straight with Lopez Vila getting an excellent drive off the final corner to join them going three wide into turn 1 for that looked like almost certain carnage, however the drivers showed their skills at this level with all three making it cleanly through the corner albeit in unchanged order. Lopez Vila and Foerschner collided with Lopez Vila having to retire his car with around 3 minutes left in the race. Rockett and Potapenko switch positions for 9th and 10th with Rockett taking the place. Unfortunately for Potapenko a minor trip off track dropped his car outside the top 10 as Cottell snuck past. Williams crossed the line for his final lap with an 11 second lead over Gamil and Ahonen. Martin overtook Kuismin for 4th an excellent recovery job. Potapenko and Smith come into the final corner for 12th side by side with Potapenko grabbing that position away from Smith who made a mistake, kicking up the dust. A Brilliant, action packed first race with a lot of excellent driving all in all. Top 3: Williams Gamil Ahomen Race 2 The engines roar into high revs as the lights drop out, every driver made it through Turn 1 and turn 2 with Martin having an amazing start to grab the lead from 4th on the grid, with Williams and Gamil in 2nd and 3rd. Williams was now glued to the gearbox of Martin. Contact between Tassenoy and Kuismin dropped both drivers well down the field. A much cleaner and less aggressive start to race 2 as Martin enters Lap 2 0.7 ahead of Williams. Rockett had a wobble which allowed Moebius to gain 7th. Up front Martin and Williams are battling it out within 0.3 between the pair. Martin ran a little wide and Williams got a great run up through Copse and managed to take 1st. Martin closed in on Williams, managing to gain a slipstream down Hangar Straight. Martin went to the inside line, with Williams squeezing him perfectly, closing the door on Martin maintaining position. However Martin did not back out of the move enough - he was trying for a gap that was never there and tagged the rear right wheel of Williams, sending them both off and a stream of cars past the pair, putting Gamil into the lead of the race, with Ahonen 2nd and Smith 3rd. Williams made his way past Diop to chase down Smith with just 10 minutes remaining in Race 2. Ahonen made a small mistake which allows Smith past into 2nd. Further down the field Cottell rounds out the top 10, with a large gap between Potapenko in 9th and Moebius in 8th of around 10 seconds. Williams sweeps past Ahonen cleanly for 3rd as Ahonen slips further back towards Martin who passed him for 4th a lap later. Tassenoy and Cottell both managed to pass Potapenko for 9th and 10th. With everyone battling cleanly there is very little movement as the race ticks down into 2 minutes remaining. Gamil and Smith are very close going into the last laps with just 0.3 of a second between them, down to 0.2 going on to the last lap. Gamil defending strongly allowed Williams to close right up on the battling duo. Williams then took a slide wide off the track coming into Becketts, promoting Martin into 3rd place. Gamil had lost a lot of time coming on to the Hangar Straight after a slow exit, this allowed Smith to power his way into the lead on the final lap with just 3 corners to go, with Martin all over the rear of Gamil. Gamil held him at bay as they crossed the line. Potapenko and Cottell had the final battle of the race over 14th as they came flying across the finish line. Potapenko held on by placing his car perfectly to prevent Cottell passing. A great victory by Smith as he battled his way to the top step. A controlled drive and level headed race from Gamil set him up for a well-deserved 2nd place, with Martin standing on the 3rd step of the podium. Race 2 was a lot calmer than Race 1. But a great effort from everyone to provide such close racing. Top 3: Smith Gamil Martin Website update: Drivers section under Team menu has been overhauled Tippet Edited by Oscar |
2 Comments
Craig Dunkley
4/19/2018 06:34:41 am
An amazing race report, second to none, greatly appreciated this read. Sadly I personally missed this race, but still very interested in how it went down ..LOOK NO FURTHER ..superb report.
Reply
Chris Holman
4/19/2018 10:33:22 am
He does write rather well, eh? Very impressed.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorR.T. Driver for Vermin Racing Archives
January 2019
Categories
All
|