UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > BF3: Round 11

Jaime Alguersuari is champion

As the day dawned for the final round of this years British Formula Three Championship at Donington, Oliver Turvey held a twelve point advantage over his Carlin team-mate Jaime Alguersuari.

By the end of the day one of them had followed in the great footsteps of previous champions such as Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Rubens Barrichello, while the other would join famous runners-up including Nicolas Minassian, Kurt Mollekens and Vincent Radermecker

Alguersuari won the first race, after holding off the Carlin of Brendon Hartley late in the race, Hartley pushed hard but could not find a way past and settled for second place.

Turvey was third, but with Alguersuari setting the fastest lap in the race, earning him an extra point, Turvey’s lead was cut to just three points.

Dean Smith was fourth for Fortec, Sam Abay fifth in the fourth Carlin, Nick Tandy was sixth for JTR, and Atte Mustonen finished seventh driving for Double R with Marcus Ericsson eighth for Fortec. Henry Surtees, son of 1964 World Champion John, finished ninth on his debut and took the National Class win in the process.

Jay Bridger finished tenth overall Fluid and with it took second place in the National Class followed by British Formula Renault front runner Adriano Buzaid on his National Class debut.

With just three points separating the title rivals, Alguersuari lined-up for the second race in second place, while Turvey could only struggle to fourteenth on the grid.

At the start of the race Turvey know he had to go for it, he must pass cars quickly in an attempt to close the gap to Alguersuari. It all went wrong for him however, when he crashed his car and retired.

With Turvey out, Alguersuari only needed to finish eighth or better to take the title. He did, and not only was he eighth or better; he took the title in the best possible way – with a race win.

Tandy was second, with Sergio Perez third for T-Sport. The Mexican was also a big player in the championship, but bad results late on saw him drop to fourth, ironically he is the only one of the entire field who will make the jump into GP2 Asia this winter.

Smith was again fourth, Abay again fifth, Oliver Oakes was sixth, Ericsson seventh, Bridger in eighth was the National Class winner, Surtees was second in the National Class and ninth overall.

Tenth overall was Henry Arundel of Double R while Buzaid was third in the National Class.

In the championship, Alguersuari ended up with 251 points, finishing seventeen ahead of vice-champion Turvey. Hartley was third with 208, 2007 National Class Champion, Perez, was fourth with 195 and “Stars of Tomorrow 2008 #1” Marcus Ericsson ended the season an impressive fifth in his rookie year.

In the National Class championship, Bridger sealed his title win a few races ago and ended with 322 points, Steven Guerrero finished a distant second for T-Sport on 211 points. Hywel Lloyd was third for CF with 207, Stefan Wilson was fourth for Fluid on 194 points, while early season dominator Andy Merick was fifth after missing the last five events.

Written: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:04:03