British F3, Round 6, Brands Hatch

[strider]

British F3 reaches the halfway way point in the season this weekend with a meeting on the GP circuit at Brands Hatch.

There's an interesting addition to the entry list in the person of Johnny Cecotto Jnr, who is having an outing in the Invitation Class with Double R.

In the National Class Salman Al-Khalifa, who missed Monza, re-appears under T-Sport's wing, but Albert Costa is giving the weekend a miss - he's probably got detention or something!

Preview here and entry list here. Someone should realise that the abbreviation for Bahrain is BRN, not BAH, which sounds slightly rude.

[Lightning Bug]

It's a good job for Cecotto that he's not driving for Double R when Senna is in the team. We all know what happened last time a Cecotto was teamed with a Senna on the Brands GP circuit... (If you're too young, check your 1984 history books!)

[dave not neil]

T Sport are good, but I don't think they'll make Al Kalifa any quicker.

Bad news for Promatecme to loose a second budget as well.

[MikeHoyer]

Can't see Cecotto on that list...

[strider]

I can! #64 in the Invitation Class.

[MikeHoyer]

Doh, my eyes...!

[Last2LiftOff]

Ah.....Brands Hatch. What a great venue.

Pardon a Brit F3-rookie question, but does the Lloyds TSB website not post any video highlights of the races? Ever? Or am I just not looking in the right place?

[MikeHoyer]

Doesn't look like there is any of the races on there, no.

[strider]

I'm sure they said they were going to show video highlights of each race, but the idea seems to have fallen by the wayside. All I can find is here, which is not very exciting.

The problem may be with the TV companies. Sometimes they get upset about footage being shown on the 'net.

[Last2LiftOff]

Yeah, no doubt Strider. The parties'd have to work that out going-in I reckon. I'd look forward to some video coverage at some point, even a much-delayed highlight package would be better than the nothing we're getting now.

In the meantime, live timing it is. Here, I think, and first qualifying just starting.

[JamesRamone]

Race 1
1. Marko Asmer Dallara-Mercedes 30:08.961
2. Stephen Jelley Dallara-Mercedes + 8.348
3. Jonathan Kennard Dallara-Mercedes + 9.948
4. Rodolfo Gonzalez Dallara-Mugen-Honda + 12.545
5. Maro Engel Dallara-Mercedes + 20.059
6. Niall Breen Dallara-Mercedes + 21.385
7. Michael Devaney Mygale-Mercedes + 30.913
8. Mario Moraes Dallara-Mercedes + 34.324
9. Greg Mansell Dallara-Mercedes + 34.669
10. W.Grubmuller Dallara-Mercedes + 40.385

Race 2
1. S.Hohenthal Dallara-Mercedes 29:45.061
2. Atte Mustonen Dallara-Mercedes + 0.524
3. Marko Asmer Dallara-Mercedes + 1.029
4. Michael Devaney Mygale-Mercedes + 9.781
5. Niall Breen Dallara-Mercedes + 12.084
6. Stephen Jelley Dallara-Mercedes + 12.729
7. Maro Engel Dallara-Mercedes + 14.680
8. Alberto Valerio Dallara-Mercedes + 15.323
9. Walter Grubmuller Dallara-Mercedes + 16.479
10. Jonathan Kennard Dallara-Mercedes + 17.559

[JamesRamone]

Good effort by Hohenthal after this rubbish with the Mansells of recent time. I think he looks good for the future, and should mature into a good driver.

good 4th by devaney in the mygale in race 2, surley a podium is not far off.

Asmer, great weekend again, MC Hammer - Cant touch this, comes to mind, but he has been doing F3 for a good length of time, so you'd expect him to have it sussed by now

i didn't see ceccotto in the results listings, anybody hear what happened to his supposed appearance?

Race 2 was apparantly excellent

thoughts?

[Francis Albert]

yeah, curious about Cecotto as well. Anyone knows what happened with him?

[dave not neil]

Binned it big time in qualifying, and RRR didn't send him back out again.

He was only there to learn the track for the Masters race, and had nothing to gain from carrying out.

[strider]

Hard to know where to begin with this one, but probably with Rodolfo Gonzalez's drive in race 1. He qualified 6th, but was slow off the line due to a clutch problem and dropped to 13th at one one point, crossing the line 12th at the end of lap 1. After that he put in a stunning drive, overtaking car after car to finish 4th, closing on Kennard and Jelley. The only place he was gifted was when Seb Hohenthal was given a drive-through for jumping the start. He rest he gained by a series of hugely impressive moves, thus giving the lie to the suggestions that 1) overtaking in F3 is impossible around Brands Hatch GP and 2) the Mugen-Honda engine is past its sell-by date. In fact Rodolfo was fastest through the speed traps in both races.

As has been mentioned, race 2 was a cracker. Seb Hohenthal got the jump on Marko Asmer off the line, with Atte Mustonen following them. Sam Bird had sped into the lead, but the officials decided he had been too eager and he was given a drive-through penalty. Asmer tracked Seb for most of the race, probing for a mistake, with Atte only a second or so behind. Marko started closing in with a few laps to go and got very close, but then had a gravel trap excursion between Dingle Dell and Stirlings, letting Mustonen into 2nd. Seb's small mistake came as he ran wide at Clearways at the end of the penultimate lap, giving Atte a run on him. The Finn tried on the inside of Druids and the two banged wheels briefly, but Seb held on with Marko closing back to just over a second behind at the flag. It was hard, clean racing and it was good to see all three shaking hands on the podium.

In the National Class, Frankie Cheng had a stellar weekend, with two pole positions, two wins and two fastest laps. Sergio Perez followed him home both times, and the two are now once again tied on points for the class lead. The battle should be well worth watching for the rest of the season.

[runshaw]

Alex Waters is giving 50% of his sponsorship money to CLIC Sargent this year, so does that mean he has to raise around £600k overall this year? Anyone know the budgets for National Class?

[badgerbaiter]

i've added some photos in the photography section from Brands
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...84#post1964184

[Russfeld]

50% of money raised, not 50% of his budget. So if someone else is paying his budget, and they'd have to otherwise he couldn't make the races; he is effectively taking 50% of money that is raised for charity...

[runshaw]

I don't understand it. He says here "I'm giving 50 per cent of all my sponsorship money to CLIC Sargent this year, so that other children and young people can can live their dreams as I'm living mine." Which means he is raising sponsorship for his racing obviously, but giving half of it away? So the main sponsor on the side of his Promatecme isn't actually sponsoring him, more like he is an ambassador for them...confused.

[bella]

i suspect there's some fairly bizarre tax benefits and loopholes being employed (if they're being smart).

[strider]

Looking back at this meeting, there are a few things worth noting.

The first is that the quality of the racing was much better than we have come to expect from F3 on the Brands GP circuit.

The second is to point out that the battle for the win in the second race was fought out between two rookies. Sure, Asmer was in the mix as well, but he has such a lead in the title chase now that he could afford to drop a few points. It will be a stunning surprise if he doesn't come out of it all as Champion. But the other experienced drivers, like Jelley, Kennard and Engel, should be worried as the newcomers are now up to speed and it looks like their chances to shine will be much reduced for the rest of the season.

Actually, mentioning Engel, Carlin's weekend was a bit bizarre. Maro was quickest overall in Friday testing and the first man to duck under the 1m 18s barrier, but he couldn't repeat that when it mattered. In fact none of the Carlin cars looked particularly comfortable over the weekend itself.

The only bad thing about it all was the start of both races, which were dealt with very poorly by the officials. This was the reason for jumped starts and burnt out clutches etc. The guy with the chequered flag even missed the leaders at the end of the second race. He had the same info from MST as all the teams and was presumably in radio contact with race control so there was no excuse.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by strider

The only bad thing about it all was the start of both races, which were dealt with very poorly by the officials. This was the reason for jumped starts and burnt out clutches etc. The guy with the chequered flag even missed the leaders at the end of the second race. He had the same info from MST as all the teams and was presumably in radio contact with race control so there was no excuse.

Did you notice that as well ? I was standing right across the track from him, watching the laps counted down. Somebody handed him the chequered flag with a couple of laps to go and he held it wrapped up horizontally as the counter went 0 laps. Must have been very confusing for the drivers. I'm surprised some didn't continue racing.

I must admit F3 this year seems a bit more follow-my-leader than in previous years. Mustonen got close to Hohenthal but then got Formulaoneitis and couldn't pass. Hope F3 doesn't go the way of F1 with the aero situation and lack of overtaking... it wasn't like that before... must be this generation of cars.

[MikeHoyer]

I noticed the flag thing! I was crouched underneath at the hole in the fence, ready for the finish shot. I was keeping an eye on the times on his screen, and was ready when they handed him the flag. When he eventually did, I was confused and missed it - luckily everyone else seemed to know the race had finished the lap before, and I got a decent shot of the top 3 and Fortec celebrating!

[bella]

to be honest i've found f3 less follow-my-leader this year than in the past 2-3 years - there's a couple of drivers who are well worth watching if the lead doesn't have a battle to focus on. there have been one or two tedious races, but on the whole it's been excellent stuff.

of course, there's also been a fair degree of muppetry. but it's usually entertaining muppetry

[strider]

Originally Posted by davyboy

I must admit F3 this year seems a bit more follow-my-leader than in previous years. Mustonen got close to Hohenthal but then got Formulaoneitis and couldn't pass. Hope F3 doesn't go the way of F1 with the aero situation and lack of overtaking... it wasn't like that before... must be this generation of cars.

To be fair, Mustonen had a serious attempt at Druids on the last lap, to the extent that they banged wheels, then Hohenthal got very defensive on Cooper Straight, changing direction several times according some observers.

And don't forget Gonzalez's charge from 12th to 4th in race 1, plus Mustonen's climb from a distant dead last (30th) to 14th, so at least a couple of drivers showed that it could be done.

Originally Posted by MikeHoyer

luckily everyone else seemed to know the race had finished the lap before, and I got a decent shot of the top 3 and Fortec celebrating!

The teams are very quick to get on the radio to the drivers, which is probably what saved the day. Otherwise there could have been the dangerous situation where some were still racing and some were not.