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Fourth to First in Dramatic Style

A perfect weekend of pole, sprint and feature wins vaulted Monty Semprini from fourth to first on the African F3 Championship table, but as flawless as the results are, they did not come without drama.

"Fantastic!" shouted the champagne-soaked Canadian over the paddock pandemonium, a bikini-clad grid girl in each arm. "We weren't the favorite coming in here, but we worked our butts off and got the points. This one is for the lads in the garage!"

The African F3 Season 6 Championship has clearly become a four car race at the front between Jackie Stewart, Alessandro Farinelli, Cliff Rajgopaul and Semprini. Coming into this fifth round Semprini trailed third-placed Farinelli by fourteen points and leader Stewart by 35. With the weekend's results in, and the partying Canadian's third and fourth wins of the season, the table has been flipped upside down with Semprini now leading on 146, holding a six point gap to Farinelli and the South African Rajgopaul.

The drama started in qualifying, when Farinelli's seemingly unassailable Q1 time of 1'45.338" was a full seven tenths quicker than Semprini's standing P2 lap. Semprini himself was only four one-thousandths clear of Eero Tarvainen. As the track warmed in Q2 the laptimes fell and Stewart and Tarvainen pushed the charismatic Canadian down to fourth. That's when Semprini pulled an epic lap out of the bag.

"I really didn't think I could get pole after practice didn't go so well. We had to kind of guess at some of the settings, but when I went out for qualifying everything was tight, so I was really happy with Q1," Semprini explained. "Then on my Q2 lap I saw my second sector split less than a tenth out. the last two corners were really solid and when I heard I was P1 I was stunned."

Semprini had taken provisional pole with a 1'45.270" and when Farinelli failed to improve his time the Canadian was officially at the front of the grid.

Semprini may have provided heroics but victory did not come without some luck. In the sprint race Stewart uncharacteristicly out-braked himself into Turn 12 and put his machine in the gravel on lap 4. Not only did this mean that the championship leader would fail to score, being the first retirement of the day would also put the Brit at the back of the field for the following feature race.

Semprini led the entire 22 lap distance quite smoothly, even managing a somewhat comfortable 2.5-second gap to the hard-charging Farinelli, until the safety car made an appearance on lap 14. After the restart the Italian pushed him hard for the final four laps causing several out-of-shape moments for the leader. On the final lap, Semprini managed the fastest lap of the race (his first of the season) to take the checquered flag ahead of Farinelli. Faneva Rakotomanana of Madagsacar rounded out the podium with Rajgopaul fourth.

In the feature the drama stepped up a notch. Leading from the start, Semprini could not shake Farinelli, who stayed within a half-second for the first 19 laps, necessitating some defensive driving from the dashing Canadian until a couple of minor mistakes allowed the Italian a good run out of the last corner and usurp the lead down the straight. Perhaps rattled by the action, Semprini then ran a bit wide out of Turn 11 allowing Rakotomanana to slip past and demote him further.

Meanwhile Stewart's weekend had gone from bad to worse. After pitting to repair damage caused by contact with Kimi Kamarainen on the opening lap, his perhaps desperate move on Niko Koskinen on lap 10 put both cars off the track, Stewart's permanently.

Victory did not seem to be in the cards for Semprini when he emerged from the pitstops behind Rakotomanana and four seconds back of Farinelli, but then with eight laps to go Farinelli ran wide at the flat out Turn 5, losing two seconds of his lead in a cloud of hot dust. Two laps later Semprini took advantage of an error to get past Rakotomanana and then just one lap after that, closed right up behind the leader when the Italian got very loose around the sweeping Turn 19. Now it was Farinelli's turn to feel the heat and with just three laps to go, slid wide at the same corner and had to lift to maintain control. A train of cars went through dropping him into fourth place.

Semprini took his second win of the weekend from Rakotomanana and Rajgopaul in thrilling style while Farinelli missed the podium after an epic drive. Sami Kamarainen rounded out a top five that left the rest of the field over 45 seconds adrift.

"Alessandro pushed me very hard and when I lost the lead I thought, just stay calm and not throw any more points away," said Semprini. "But I hung in there and opportunity came back to me. What an incredible race, close the whole way and I congratulate Sandro, Rakoto and Cliff on a fantastic drive today."

The former Slovenian and Ukrainian F3 Champion, Semprrini moved up to a greater challenge this season in Africa.

"This is tough competition and to be in the thick of the fight like this is just top. I totally believe I just might win this now," he said. "This is the best weekend of my career so far. I will remember this for the rest of my life. Thanks so much to the team and all the rest of the drivers on the grid."

He took the champagne bottle in his fist and emptied it over his open mouth and face. Then with a shout of "Woooo!" he walked off into the paddock and the Senegal sunshine with his grid girls.