Press Releases - F3 Masters - Pau Review: Clean Sweep for Dexter Morgan

F3 Masters - Pau Review: Clean Sweep for Dexter Morgan

Qualifying:
As we got underway, 1 lap for each driver, Bartolomeu Jarbas took the honours to commence this season, Dexter Morgan put in a good lap to leapfrog Michael Damon Novikov by only 8 thousandths of a second for pole, Petter Solberg Jr. was another 8 thousandths behind in 3rd, Razor Rushman was 4th, Alex Reis, 2 thousandths behind, followed by Abilio Nario and Gustav Zatacka who both put in identical lap times, 8 hunderths behind, Svilzester Szalonna II was in 8th and Ivan Kalinin was 9th, and Bartolomeu Jarbas rounds out the top 10. The top 9 were only seperated by 9 hunderths of a second, how crazy is that?

Sprint Race:
5 red lights and the season got underway, Morgan led from Novikov behind but not too far behind, Solberg, Rushman and Reis keeping position, Nario had a little threat at the start by Zatacka but backed out and dropped two places, Kalinin gained 2 on the other hand, but the safety car was already out for our first casualty of the season and we haven't finished the first lap, Csabi Szasz was out with heavy damage on his car at Turns 10-11-12-13.
The race got back underway as the safety car went in on Lap 8 and Morgan once again kept his gap to Novikov but both were pulling away from Solberg despite him being a bit lighter on fuel, Tony Muller was the next driver to see the wall at Turn 8 on Lap 13 but no safety car was needed, Sasu Suikkanen was the first driver of the season to dive into the pits on Lap 24 as another 6 drivers followed him in, Petter Solberg was the first of the leaders to come in on Lap 27 from 3rd, a quick pitstop and he was back out in 10th but stuck behind Karina Sette who was due a pitstop anytime soon, Rushman behind was given a breathe of fresh air and dived into the pits later on and with an even quicker pitstop he was able to jump Solberg who was still stuck behind Sette. On Lap 31, Morgan's and Novikov's battle continued into the pits, Novikov's crew beat Morgan's and inherited the theorical lead of the race, but while trying to clear Reis on track, Novikov had a huge moment through the fast Esses of Turns 11-12-13-14 and saved it but it put Morgan back into the lead. Despite late crashes from Paulposichon and Solberg due late right rear suspension breakage, Morgan never looked back and took the first win of the season, the breathe of fresh air he needed. Novikov settled for 2nd while Rushman did a great job to finish on the podium, Alex Reis had a late pitstop and took home the fastest lap of the race in 4th, Szalonna was 5th, Kalinin making moves to finish 6th, Zatacka in 7th, Nario in 8th, Jarbas in 9th and Ashley Bell rounded out the top 10, the last 5 point finishers were Pither, Nannini, St-Germain, Nalbandian and Sette.

Feature Race:
Feature Race started off to be ridiculously wet, all 40 drivers managed to brave it out in the wet, crashes happened, drivers collected damage but Dexter Morgan continued to dominate despite an early scare from Novikov who still refused to leave him alone, meanwhile the battle for 3rd place was juicy, Szalonna jumped to 3rd in the early stages until Zatacka found his way through the Hungarian, and drivers were fighting to survive and we're still surviving. Morgan increased his gap to 6 seconds halfway through the race, while Morgan pitted, Zatacka's took the lead in clear air as he tried to leapfrog Novikov for 2nd but instead got jumped by Alex Reis who dropped down earlier on, became the man on a mission, getting past Novikov for 2nd and decreased the gap to Morgan to try and hunt him down for the win, but at the end it was too late, Morgan took the win the complete a clean sweep from Alex Reis only 5 seconds behind, Novikov finished 3rd, while Zatacka despite all his efforts, missed out on the podium, Szalonna rounded out the top 5 to Kalinin, Chloe de St-Germain a good peformance by her in the wet, 13th to 7th, Nannini also gained places too, Kenny Werdheim was one of the biggest winners, 23rd in the Sprint to 9th in the Feature, Razor Rushman in the other hand lost out but rounded out the top 10. Jarbas was 11th, John Lawley scored his first points in the competition in 12th, Cameron Pither was 13th, Joe Paulposichon from the back, took 2 points home in 14th and last of the point finishers was Ashley Bell.
All 40 drivers however managed to finish and survive the monsoon conditions at Pau, fantastic!

See you at the next race at Monaco!