Lehdistötiedotteet - F3: Durban 44, South Africa

F3: Durban 44, South Africa

2 AM, Wednesday, Season 11 - Last night, Formula 3 traveled to the Durban Street Circuit in the Republic of South Africa. The 44-lap event was won by its polesitter, 28-year-old driver Aurelijus Zemeckas of Lithuania, in his second start and first win of Season 11. It was the 229th victory of his career, in his 884th career start. The race was ended during a safety car period after Australian Josh Keith, making the 8th start of his career, crashed in Turn 3 with 2 laps to go. Zemeckas had nearly a 4 second lead over Spanish veteran Víctor Manuel Fuentes López at the time the field was frozen. Bulgarian Svetlio Kaspara claimed the final podium position.

Qualifying was held 7:30 Monday evening, where Zemeckas won the pole with a lap of 01:24.838, the 162nd pole of his career. Lopez qualified second with a lap 0.240 seconds slower, with Kaspara qualifying third, France's Clément Stoner starting fourth, and his compatriot Mathieu Henault rounding out the top five in the starting order.

The race began at 7:30 on Tuesday evening. Josh Keith of Australia, Werner Flink and Weeko Meyer of Germany, Mike McConville and Jacob Fisher of the United States, and Filip Bleckaut of the Czech Republic were the rookies making one of their first starts in this event.

The event had barely started when the brakes of American driver William Moen failed on the front stretch as he was running in 24th place, and he crashed hard in the first corner of the second lap, calling out the safety car. "It was a rough start to our day, not at all what we'd been hoping for," he said in the garage, unhurt but shaken. "I was trying to hold off McConville and then the pedal went right to the floor. There was nothing I could do." While the field was racing around to the finish line, Lukáš Stolnotenista Rosinčin of Slovakia made a move on the German Michael Christ entering Turn 6, made contact, and lightly bounced off the wall, mildly damaging his vehicle and causing both valuable time. Jaco Ebersohn, John Kirwan, and the damaged vehicle of Rosinčin took the opportunity to pit under this safety period.

Clean-up was completed and the race began again on lap 8. Zemeckas held his lead, and South Africa native Ebersohn made his way back up to 19th by lap 14. At that point, there were several incidents, not bad enough to call out the safety car. In turn 4, Weeko Meyer went briefly off-track, losing a position to Rosinčin. John Kirwan, of the United Kingdom, had a bad lap go worse as he went off-track in turn 7, and then two turns later, trying to make up time, a suspension part broke in the car, and he completed the lap 4 seconds behind the next-to-last car on track. Josef Cerny collided with the wall while racing Vadim Gatsuro for 11th place in Turn 9, and severely crumpled the side fender of his vehicle.

On lap 16, Werner Flink pitted out of 20th place, with an 11.1 second pit stop, the first of the leaders to come to the pit lane. On lap 21, Jozsef Ifj Sandor pitted out of 11th place. Carlos Emunds visited the pit lane on lap 22 out of 6th place, and shortly thereafter, 18th place Martin Maetens visited pit lane after a slow lap with what turned out to be a terminal engine problem. He was the final driver to come in before 16 cars, including the leader Zemeckas, came in to pit on lap 23. Tom Brozek had a blazing fast pit stop of 9.9 seconds, the fastest of the race, and Victor Lopez inherited a seven-tenths lead over Svetlio Kaspara. Lopez, Kaspara, and Jacob Fisher waited until Lap 25 to make their pit stops. After leading 3 laps, Lopez surrendered the lead to Zemeckas, who would keep it until the end of the race. At the end of the pit cycle, he had a 4.5 second lead over Lopez. Ebersohn had managed to make his way to 10th place.

On lap 28, Mary Samothrakis missed the entry to Turn 9, losing four positions. On lap 30, Jozsef Ifj Sandor, running 11th, lost oil pressure, and was forced to retire from the event, finishing 28th.

On lap 33, Ebersohn made his pit stop, dropping to 14th, which was still a good gain from the 29th place he wound up in after his early pit stop. However, not all were as lucky as he. Svetlio Kaspara lost 6 seconds off of second place after going off-track at the exit of Turn 5, but even he was not as unfortunate as Mathieu Henault in 5th place, who blew a tire and spun out going through Turn 7. He limped to pit lane, retiring from the event. There was no safety car called out.

The following lap, Vadim Gatsuro and Michael Mihaylov both had minor accidents on the stretch between turns 9 and 10, out of 7th and 13th places, respectively. Mihaylov damaged the rear end on the vehicle with contact with the wall, severely ailing his car.

Despite his good run after the early pit stop, or perhaps because of all the passing he did, Jaco Ebersohn unfortunately blew the transmission before getting to turn 9, and stopped beside the track, dropping from 12th place to 26th. "So frustrating," he said after the race. "So close to a top 10 finish here at a home track, and then boom, it just stopped working."

On lap 41, Viljar Aros struck the wall in Turn 5, damaging the front fender of the car. Fortunately for him, he did not lose many positions before Josh Keith crashed in Turn 3 after losing control the next lap, bringing out the safety car for the end of the race.

The final finish:

1 - A. Zemeckas
2 - V. Lopez
3 - S. Kaspara
4 - C. Stoner
5 - C. Emunds
6 - R. Toree
7 - V. Gatsuro
8 - A. Sorensen
9 - J. Volak
10 - G. La Vespa
11 - R. Rato
12 - J. Cerny
13 - L. Rosincin
14 - T. Brozek
15 - M. Samothrakis
16 - M. Mihaylov
17 - W. Flink
18 - M. McConville
19 - V. Aros
20 - M. Christ
21 - W. Meyer
22 - J. Fisher
23 - J. Kirwan
24 - F. Bleckaut
25 - J. Keith, DNF
26 - J. Ebersohn, DNF
27 - M. Henault, DNF
28 - J. Ifj Sandor, DNF
29 - M. Maetens, DNF
30 - W. Moen, DNF

Said Zemeckas in victory lane, "It was a great day for my team here in South Africa. We raced hard from the first lap of qualifying to the final lap of racing, and to be honest, nobody else had us worried." His dominant performance to begin Season 11 may set the tone for another great year for the veteran from Lithuania.