UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Jules Bianchi is the F3 Master

Frenchman wins at Zolder

The Masters of Formula Three, held at the Belgian circuit of Zolder is second only to Macau as the most prestigious race in Formula Three.

There was thirty-seven drivers taking part from both the Euro series and the British series all vying to follow Nico Hulkenberg as he Masters Champion. Hulkenberg himself was in the field looking to make it back to back wins.

The Euro series cars always have the advantage due to them using the same tyres in this race as they do in the regular tyres, while the British cars have to adapt from their usual compound for one race only.

Christian Vietoris topped the first practise session in wet conditions driving for Mücke, he was just 0.026 seconds clear of James Jakes and his ART team mate Nico Hulkenberg, who won last year, as they completed a Euro series 1-2-3.

The British series drivers struggled slightly, Esterban Guerrieri was the top fourth overall 0.798 second off the pace, Brendon Hartley was second for them and sixth overall for Carlin however he was 1.126 seconds of the pace. Team mate Jamie Alguersuari was twelfth overall 1.496 seconds of Vietoris.

The second practise session went better with Guerrieri setting the fastest time and Atte Mustonen of Double R topping a British series 1-2. Next was a Euro series domination, Hulkenberg was third overall, Jean-Karl Vernay fourth and Frank Mailleux fifth both for Signature.

The Euro series had so much domination at the top of the timesheets the next highest British runner was JTR’s Nick Tandy way down in ninth place.

With thirty-seven runners qualifying was slit into two groups based on race numbers, to ensure a mix of Euro series and British series drivers in each group.

Hulkenberg was fastest in Group A with a time 0.177 seconds faster than his nearest rival Stefano Coletti in a Prema with another Prema of Renger van der Zande third in the group. The best British runners were Richard Philippe of Carlin fourth, Hartley in fifth and Michael Devaney seventh of Ultimate. The top ten from each group qualify for final qualifying, the rest of the qualifiers were: Vietoris sixth, Jon Lancaster of ART eighth, Tandy ninth and Roberto Merhi of Hitech tenth.

Group B was also topped by the Euro series and their championship contender Mika Maki of Mücke. Manor driver Koudai Tsukakoshi was second with ART’s Jules Bianchi third. Alguersuari was the top British series in fourth, Rodolfo Gonzalez was sixth for Carlin, and Chilton was seventh. Other qualifiers were Dani Clos of Prema fifth, Henkie Waldschmidt of SG eighth, Euro series championship leader Eduardo Mortara ninth for Signature and Daniel Campos-Hull tenth for HBR.

In final qualifying it was Hulkenberg that beat Bianchi late on by 0.270 seconds to take the Masters pole. With Bianchi in second it not only gave an all Euro series front row but an all ART front row. Van Der Zande as the Euro series locked out the first five places. Chilton was sixth and top British driver, Hartley was ninth and Gonzalez eleventh as the British drivers again struggled.

The race was won by Bianchi, to take his first over Formula Three win at the best possible time, at his first attempt at the Masters and only his second year of car racing. He mastered difficult conditions leading on a wet track and keeping his cool to hold on to it on a tricky drying track.

He started second to Hulkenberg but the German fluffed the start allowing Bianchi to take the lead that he would never lose. He held onto second but could do nothing to catch his team mate

Lancaster was third to complete a 1-2-3 result for the ART team. He was able to stay with Bianchi and Hulkenberg in the early stages but he lost time on consecutive laps while lapping back markers and fell back, eventually finishing twenty seconds behind Bianchi.

Maki was fourth after having a lonely race. He jumped from eighth on the grid in the early laps but could not get near the ART trio ahead. Hartley was the top British runner in fifth. He was stuck behind Campos-Hull for over half the race and once clear Maki and the rest were to far ahead to do anything about.

Sixth and seventh were taken by Mustonen and Bird after they moved through the pack together. Alguersuari slipped backwards after holding sixth for a long time to finish eighth and third of the British runners, while his Carlin Motorsport teammate Richard Philippe clipped Waldschmidt and both retired, Gonzalez tried a similar move on Campos-Hull at the final chicane and knocked him out of the race.

Gonzalez held onto ninth despite the contact and Vernay completed the top ten. Euro series leader Mortara struggled from a poor grid slot and finished fifteenth while the practice pace-setter Vietoris also struggled home to eighteenth place, one ahead of Guerrieri who topped second practice.

Written: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:32:30