British F3 Brands Hatch

[Richard B]

Last UK race for British International F3 series until September!
Timetable here:
http://ticket.motorsportvision.co.uk...1819062011.pdf

[strider]

Never mind, I'm going to Spa!

There was testing at Brands today, one dry session, one wet. Report.

Weekend preview.

Lee McKenzie will be there to see the F1 drivers of tomorrow.

[Richard B]

Qualifying over:
Svendsen-Cook fastest followed by Adderly Fong !!
Weather was dry.
Full times to follow (unless Srider gets there first!)

[Richard B]

Full times here:
http://www.tsl-timing.com/?loc=major...&tabletype=gif

[Alfaholic]

Congratulations to Lucas Foresti for making his wet tyres last the full race distance when (almost) everybody else swapped to slicks during the race as the circuit dried out.

Another couple of laps 'though with the gap at 4.9secs and Nasr lapping 4 seconds a lap faster...

[strider]

Quick links to race reports:

Race 1 yesterday - very good tactical win by Lucas Foresti.

Race 2 this morning - maiden win for Harry Tincknell.

Race 3 this afternoon - awesome win by Felipe Nasr.

[chunterer]

Tincknell?? Wow!

Nasr v Foresti for the title now is it?

Dunno why exactly but these two remind me a bit of Da Matta versus Castro Neves a few years back, 2 Brazilians shadowing each other's careers up the ranks etc.

[BoyRac3r]

Well done Harry!!

[strider]

I don't want to rain on Harry's parade, because he had to fight for the win, but Race 2 is the short one at 20 minutes with a partly reversed grid.

The secret to Harry's success was making a very good start from pole position. Nasr and Foresti were 9th and 10th. I thought Magnussen would be a threat in P3, but his engine wouldn't start.

Then there was a start line shunt further back that brought out the Safety Car for four laps. After that Harry just had to hold it together to the flag. but Menasheh Idafar did his best to make it difficult and was never much more than half a second behind.

Nasr and Foresti certainly seem to be the ones to beat, but after seeing Felipe's drive on Sunday I think he's in the driving seat.

[jondownunder]

I too don't want to rain on his parade, but personally I disregard all reverse grid wins in whatever series when I'm reflecting on the season, be it British F3, GP2 etc. I know the teams and drivers seem to want reverse grid races, but I don't think mediocrity should be rewarded in series that are supposed to find F1 drivers of the future. Keep them to artificial entertainment racing like BTCC if it must exist.

[David Stallard]

Great racing on Sunday, even through the unscheduled 'damp' sessions, got a few shots here: http://www.davidstallardphotography....378573_k8dRbxH

.DAVID.

PS: so how do you guys see where the hell your going once the spray gets up?

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by David Stallard

Great racing on Sunday, even through the unscheduled 'damp' sessions, got a few shots here: http://www.davidstallardphotography....378573_k8dRbxH

.DAVID.

PS: so how do you guys see where the hell your going once the spray gets up?

Some good stuff there David, we can't have been that far apart at times.
Mine are at:
http://www.formula3pics.com/portfolio192158.html

[strider]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Some good stuff there David, we can't have been that far apart at times.
Mine are at:.
http://www.formula3pics.com/portfolio192158.html

Some good shots in there as well. I like the sequence with Pietro Fantin and Rupert Svendsen-Cook in the wet feature race.

We ought to have photos as a regular post race feature, although it's going to be difficult now as the Series moves to Europe until September. I'm managing one race out of the three, but that's going to be an expensive short holiday.

[strider]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

I too don't want to rain on his parade, but personally I disregard all reverse grid wins in whatever series when I'm reflecting on the season, be it British F3, GP2 etc. I know the teams and drivers seem to want reverse grid races, but I don't think mediocrity should be rewarded in series that are supposed to find F1 drivers of the future. Keep them to artificial entertainment racing like BTCC if it must exist.

I'm a racing purist, so I agree. Forgetting the BTCC, where they're just to create some more panel-bashing mayhem, reverse grid races are there to give a driver who wouldn't otherwise have much chance of winning a race the opportunity to do so. Simple as that.

In the Sunoco Rolex Daytona Challenge they count races 1 and 3 for points, which tells it's own story. Incidentally, Felipe Nasr is currently leading that too. http://www.sunocodaytonachallenge.co...ird_place.html

[CATMAN]

The reverse grid is not a lot of good to top racers. It should never be a feature in formula racing.
As for pure racing, you'll never get that whilst Carlin are running 6 cars. Nasr gets the choice car, engineer and bolters. Nasr is also managed by Steve 'Robbo' Robertson the same as Kimi. Robertson has F1 track record and needs a replacement F1 driver and has invested a lot of time and money in Felipe. You can guarantee that a little 'back scratching' helps get the results
Felipe is a good driver, but I doubt that he's the best F3 driver in British F3, he probably just has the best 'arrangement'. Same old same old..........

[strider]

You can drive to Spa, but as David Stallard says the fuel costs are getting horrendous.

Let's just hope the title's not all wrapped up before they get back to the UK. I think Foresti and Magnussen (when he gets some luck) will keep Nasr honest.

[Alan Brown]

Great to see Magnussen overtaking at Hawthorns on his charge in Race 2. (Big spherical objects!)

[bella]

Originally Posted by strider

You can drive to Spa, but as David Stallard says the fuel costs are getting horrendous.

i just did the nurburgring and back from east anglia-ish for £80 diesel and a £30 return channel crossing on norfolkline/dfds. go over empty, fill up at auchan dunkerque for €1.33 a litre, drive... appropriately, and make sure you go back home with a full tank to make the most of the savings for the next week or so too. on two tanks of diesel the price difference between the uk and a supermarket diesel fillup in france on a large-ish tank actually pays for the cost of the ferry.

[strider]

Originally Posted by bella

i just did the nurburgring and back from east anglia-ish for £80 diesel and a £30 return channel crossing on norfolkline/dfds. go over empty, fill up at auchan dunkerque for €1.33 a litre, drive... appropriately, and make sure you go back home with a full tank to make the most of the savings for the next week or so too. on two tanks of diesel the price difference between the uk and a supermarket diesel fillup in france on a large-ish tank actually pays for the cost of the ferry.

That's very helpful information, bella, thanks. It will help me when I go to Spa. The only trouble for me is that thoughts of a diesel are a distant dream and I have to go for Super Unleaded which disappears at a depressing rate. But, hey, I'm going to Spa for four days and I love that place and I've already worked out how I might get a crafty lift into the paddock with a friend, which helps no end!

[bella]

i can't remember the price of unleaded 98 at auchan but it's worth a look (it's on the junction with the centre commercial signposted somewhere around grand synthe). the diesel is around 10 cents a litre cheaper than on the autoroute at mannekensvere just over the border (the texaco on both sides).

for ferries, don't use those cost saving sites, and don't use seafrance. unless coachtrips with thousands of children and people who... smell a bit odd and ferries you can't catch a sleep on are your cup of tea! they're also completely inflexible unless you shell out more for their flexible ticket. norfolkline and p&o both allow you to catch the earlier or later crossing for no amendment fees. that's more of an advantage for the longer drives, especially norfolkline who do crossings every 2 hours. it means you have a 4 hour window for traffic and organisational fails rather than 2 at the most. plus if the crossing you want is say, £20 and the one before or after is £10 you can book the cheaper one and get on the expensive one free of charge

[strider]

More excellent stuff bella. I'm going to cut and paste it for my trip to Spa. How do I get to Auchan at Dunkirk coming from the Calais direction if that's how it happens?

[bella]

it's just off the main motorway to belgium, so turn left out of calais and keep going till you get to grande-synthe. here it is on google maps if you're there within normal french supermarket hours i can highly recommend the wine aisle to pick up a bottle or two!

[strider]

Even more brilliant info. Thanks so much and, yes, I shall be taking a wander down the wine aisle!

You should write a handbook for people planning to drive to race circuits in Europe. It wouldn't need to be long, just the basics to get them started as you've done for me here.

Nurburgring coming up for BF3 this weekend. Hope the weather is better than the WDR meeting had.

[bella]

my blog post (linked to on me profile or to the left of this waffle here) does cover some of the basics but not so much of the specifics like that

ferries in particular seems to be something the british have a mental block on. either they use the same company they used since the 80s and the herald of free enterprise went down, or they resolutely stick to the tunnel completely unaware of the fact they've just thrown a night in a nice hotel down the pan in terms of cost differences.

if you're going to spa, eddy v pointed out in the trackside thread that there's roadworks on the vilvoorde viaduct on the brussels ring road (which is a couple of miles before the turnoffs for the airport). unless you're travelling at an antisocial hour it'll add time to your journey.

if anyone's thinking of going to the nurburgring, norfolkline are currently offering about £30 return for a dover-dunkerque crossing for the weekend. go on, you know you want to

[strider]

Excellent blog entry, I gave it 5 stars. There really is a lot of good information packed into a small space there.

I forgot to say that the link on google maps was great thanks.

I don't like the sound of road works on the Brussels ring road. Will they still be there at the end of July?

I came back a different way last time, just for variety, but I can't remember if it avoided the ring road. It's what I call the WWI route because all the towns you pass by are places where they had massive battles back then. But it might take me away from dunkerque, which is not a good idea.

Thanks again. Totally off topic, but very useful for me and anyone else planning to visit race circuits in Europe.