プレスリリース - F3 North America. Hot Denver.
F3 North America. Hot Denver.
The great race was at the last weekend. Weather forecast promised sunny qualification and rainy 1st race. That meant various tactics for pilots.
Qualification. After first fast lap, 2 pilots occupied top of the list and showed that their cars considerably faster than others. It was Anthony Ventura and Reinhard Artmann. Artmann laged by about 0.01 seconds. Third was Zvonimir Ignac with the gap about 0.5 seconds. Next was Vasily Terkin and Max Andrews. In the 2nd attemp Anthony was able to improve his time by another 0.01 seconds, but Reinhard didn't do this and remained second. Only Jan Brabec improved his result in the top of peloton and went up to 5th place, Max became only 6th.
1st Race. The start was without incidents, but already in the 7 turn Marc Feagins smashed his car and the safety car went to the track. The Rain continued to increase and some racers, who, started on the slics or maybe made a mistake with a weather tolerance, went to the pit stop. Two leaders Ventura and Artmann was among them. And Vasily Terkin led the peloton. After restart Anthony Ventura retired due to problems with transmission. But Vasily retained the lead just 2 laps, Max Andrews overtook him. The safety car returned to the track on the 14th lap, after crash of Reinhard Artmann and Matthew Tomlinson. Two fastest cars in qualification had already retired! After Max Andrews went to his first pit stop, Terkin led the race and continued to 26th lap when he made a bad mistake and Alan Green became first. Meanwhile the rain was very light and the track started to dry out. And Vasily had to go to pit stop. On the 36th lap safety car went back again and stayed on the track to the last lap. Here is result of 1st race: Alan Greene, Max Andrews, Antonio da Costa.
2nd Race. After 2 laps of fighting before the start, Max Andrews overtook Alan Greene and became 1st. Also Vasily Terkin won one position by overtaking Jean Cullen. On the 7th lap Antonio da Costa crashed his car and the safety car went to the track. Meanwhile Reinhard Artmann forced through the peloton to 6th position (from 27th start position). After restart Reinhard continued to overtake his opponents, and when the second safety car went to track on the 17th lap he became 2nd after Max Andrews's pit stop. And on the 23th lap after overtaking the leader Alan Greene he became first. Vasily Terkin at that momnent overtook the Jan Brabec, but after very bad mistake fell back to 9th place. On the 29th lap Alan Greene also made a mistake and out. Meanwhile Anthony Ventura had gone to the 2nd place, and top 5 was as follows: Reinhard Artmann, Anthony Ventura, Jan Brabec, Vasily Terkin and Jean Cullen. But only after 2 laps Anthony damaged his car, and he had to go to the pit for repair and lost his position. After a huge number of attacks Vasily overtook Jan, and became 2nd. But only after 2 laps he went to pit stop. It seemed normal but at the next lap he broke his car and had to go back to the pitlane. After that accident and mass pit stops he became 10th. Artmann was out at that lap. Max Andrews took the lead. But his tyres was damaged and after 10 laps he went to pit stop, it was strategy of 2 pit stops. Anthony Ventura overtook Jan Brabec for the first position, but not for long. On the 68th lap he was out. Terrible weekend for Anthony. Jan finished this race first and added one more victory to his statistic. Very good speed showed Vasily Terkin at the last laps and overtook Max Andrews. He won the third podium at this season in North America Series. Final standings: Jan Brabec, Jean Cullen, Vasily Terkin.
Amazing weekend has ended and situation in our championship became more and more interesting. Only 9 points between 2 leaders Ventura and Brabec. Vasily Terkin not only returned 4th place, but almost caught up Marc Feagins. Max Andrews took 5th place in championship. Next roung have already started with qualification and 2 races will be in the weekend.