Press Releases - F3 Masters Round 1 Pau Feature: Bellamy takes his vengeance

F3 Masters Round 1 Pau Feature: Bellamy takes his vengeance

Samuel Bellamy took his vengeance after losing out in the Sprint Race yesterday, passing Szybki who followed him home in 2nd and Villeneuve in 3rd.

Report:
What looked like to be a rolling start again, Steve Villeneuve got away cleanly with the start seeing his fellow senior Samuel Bellamy retaking his lap 1 revenge on Bartek Szybki diving the inside of Turn 2 with some lovely action going on in the midfield with Andrea DeCesaris and Roman Passaniti finding their way past Alex Reis compromising his and Steve Wallace's line at the start, right infront of them on Lap 2 saw Zach Austin make a lovely divebomb on Roy Penninckmeester for 11th at the same turn, and exactly a lap later, Petter Solberg had a go on Thorin Eichenschild but up the front Steve Villeneuve kept gapping himself from Samuel Bellamy who is hungry to take back what he lost yesterday, Bartek Szybki found himself in trouble from Cordell Gifford who is on a lighter fuel load and hoping to possibly undercut the pack infront. On Lap 12, the TV cameras went to the lower midfield and saw Paolo Nannini going around the outside of Chloe de Saint-Germain at Turn 6, side by side under braking for Turn 7 only for Paolo Nannini to lock the rears and having no choice to take the escape road and surrender the place and losing another to Reeves Callaway in the process, but we got to the two Canadians at the front to see a battle heat up, Bellamy got closer and closer to Villeneuve, got himself side by side through the start-finish staright to the fast right hander of Turn 1, Bellamy got brave on the brakes down to Turn 2 and took the lead of the race, while Villeneuve had to surrender, it allowed Szybki and the pack to close up but Villeneuve was having none of it and responded. Lap 17 saw it's first casualty with Dutchman Roy Penninckmeester spinning into the wall at Turn 15, damaging the rear of his car and with the debris on the track, safety car had to be deployed and it saw Gifford, Solberg and Zaggro to dive into the pits and could possibly be on a 2 stop that could see them theorically leading the race. Green flag waved out on Lap 24 and the race resumed with Samuel Bellamy now pulling away from the guys and pushing til the pit window, while we go to the battle for 7th, Heleia Genorés led a massive train of cars but with Richard Verschoor making Verstappen like moves, one on Cordell Gifford who was heavy-fuelled through the home staright on Lap 27, 2 laps later, a move down the inside of Turn 2 on DeCesaris, putting him up to 9th, a 3 way battle between Genorés, Austin and Verschoor developed but when Austin saw his chance on the Spanish wonderwoman, Verschoor came out of nowhere and made it 3 abreast and snatched the best overtake award of Austin as well as his 7th place. Bellamy and Villeneuve dived into the pits on Lap 34 with Szybki staying out and also staying out was Luiz Thomazini who was hoping to get himself into the fight but came in a lap later and was unable to jump Marc Vilanova, while Szybki pulled some good sector times, it was his turn to come into the pits and a sweet pitstop saw him jump Villeneuve, they continued their little swabble when Szybki ran into dirty air from the midfielders who haven't pitted yet, Villeneuve retook the place around the outside of Turn 5 going to the inside of Turn 6, Gifford saw himself leading the race but he didn't have enough fuel to make it to the end but rejoined in 4th after another pitstop on Lap 46, once Bellamy was handed back the lead, he already had a sizeable adantvage over Villeneuve and Szybki who were having an exciting fight for position, another victim on Lap 52 was Chloe de Saint-Germain kissing the wall at Turn 1, enough to break her suspension but was able to pull over in the escape road, David Lumbreras Jr. was next a lap later at Turn 5, Mack Zaggro was the next one with suspension breakage not long after pitting but it turned out to be a mechanical failure. Cordell Gifford was another one with problems but it saw him lose time rather than gain to Villeneuve and Szybki fighting, Marc Vilanova was soon past him in split second but having to keep a set of hungry hippos was gonna be tough with his car problems but with the track nature, he really didn't need to worry.
Bartek Szybki wasn't finished with Steve Villeneuve for 2nd, a perfect exit at Turn 4 gave him a run on the Canadian to Turn 5, picked the outside and does the same thing his rival did to him a couple of laps back and retakes 2nd place off him, nearing the end of the race and Gifford's car was packed, Thomazini found his way past and a lap later Eichenschild followed through and Verschoor was about to but backed out and De Cesaris didn't realise and tapped the back of the Dutchman's car somehow Verschoor got away unscathered while DeCesaris lost time and carried significant front wing damage.
Samuel Bellamy came across the line to win what was a near perfect meeting, 9 seconds from 2nd place man Bartek Szybki and Steve Villeneuve completed the podium. Marc Vilanova finished 4th, Thomazini 5th, Eichenschild 6th, Verschoor finishing 7th after what was a good race by him, Zach Austin surviving a late technical scare to hold on to 8th from Genorés and Wallace. DeCesaris limped home outside the top 10, next man was U22 winner Max del Ragno, Cordell Gifford dropped like a stone down to 13th with the points rounded out by Solberg and Passaniti.

Results:
1 S. Bellamy
01:33:23.565
2 B. Szybki
01:33:32.981
+09.416 (+9.416)
3 S. Villeneuve
01:33:35.318
+11.752 (+2.336)
4 M. Vilanova
01:33:40.068
+16.502 (+4.750)
5 L. Thomazini
01:33:50.520
+26.954 (+10.452)
6 T. Eichenschild
01:33:54.184
+30.618 (+3.664)
7 R. Verschoor
01:33:54.323
+30.758 (+0.140)
8 Z. Austin
01:34:00.255
+36.689 (+5.931)
9 H. Geronès
01:34:01.043
+37.478 (+0.789)
10 S. Wallace
01:34:01.358
+37.792 (+0.314)
11 A. DeCesaris
01:34:04.359
+40.794 (+3.002)
12 M. Del Ragno
01:34:09.719
+46.153 (+5.359)
13 C. Gifford
01:34:09.943
+46.377 (+0.224)
14 P. Solberg
01:34:10.234
+46.668 (+0.291)
15 R. Passaniti
01:34:10.613
+47.048 (+0.380)
16 A. Nario
01:34:10.693
+47.127 (+0.079)
17 M. Montane
01:34:11.158
+47.592 (+0.465)
18 K. Wirdheim
01:34:14.890
+51.324 (+3.732)
19 M. Novikov
01:34:18.250
+54.684 (+3.360)
20 R. Callaway
01:34:33.555
+01:09.989 (+15.305)
21 A. Holguera
01:34:34.314
+01:10.748 (+0.760)
22 B. Reckziegel
01:34:36.055
+01:12.489 (+1.741)
23 J. Macieira II
01:34:36.697
+01:13.131 (+0.641)
24 P. Ross
01:34:37.171
+01:13.605 (+0.475)
25 T. Pasek
01:34:44.911
+1 laps (+7.739)
26 A. Reis
01:34:45.472
+1 laps (+0.562)
27 H. Volak Jr.
01:34:46.006
+1 laps (+0.534)
28 S. Suikkanen
01:34:46.528
+1 laps (+0.521)
29 C. Pither
01:34:47.818
+1 laps (+1.290)
30 T. Müller
01:34:48.974
+1 laps (+1.156)
31 T. Smets
01:34:57.783
+1 laps (+8.809)
32 P. Nannini
01:34:58.412
+1 laps (+0.630)
33 K. Sette
01:34:59.587
+1 laps (+1.175)
34 P. Goldberg III
01:35:48.027
+1 laps (+48.439)
35 M. Mizuhara
01:35:48.329
+1 laps (+0.303)
36 A. Pimentel
01:38:22.211
+3 laps (+153.881)
37 M. Zaggro
DNF
+16 laps
38 D. Lumbreras Jr.
DNF
+18 laps
39 C. de Saint-Germain
DNF
+19 laps
40 R. Penninckmeester
DNF
+54 laps

Fun Fact:
Bellamy, Szybki and Villeneuve all shared the podium in both races.

See you next time at Monaco guys!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jBxrkc3XxXM_Z1ZxfS0QdOP1RAzzb3R1H-3_bVnEQTc