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Dedicated to the memory of Henry Surtees

Round four of the first FIA Formula Two Championship in twenty five years was held at Brands Hatch in Great Britain. Andy Soucek leads the championship with twenty eight points, second placed Robert Wickens with twenty six and third placed Julian Jousse with twenty five.

Mikhail Aleshin topped the first practise session lapping the circuit 0.078 seconds clear of championship contender Jousse. Championship leader Soucek was third 0.233 seconds slower with Eduardo Piscopo just two thousandths of a second off the pace of Soucek.

Piscopo improved in the second practise session to go fastest. Home driver Henry Surtees was second two tenths slower, Jousse was third and Sebastien Hohenthal made a rare appearance near the top of the timing sheets, ending the session in fourth place 0.292 seconds slower than Piscopo.

Phillipp Eng took his turn at the top of the timing sheets when it matters, by claming pole position for the first race. He was joined on the front row by Soucek who missed pole by just 0.013. Hohenthal used his Brands Hatch experience from British Formula Three to set the third fastest time, but he was given a five place grid penalty for exceeding the track limits at Paddock Hill Bend on repeated occasions, gaining an advantage, which promoted Surtees to third and Kazim Vasiliauskas

In qualifying two, Soucek took pole position by going 0.028 seconds faster than Robert Wickens, who joins him on the front row. Hohenthal was again third but again he was penalised for exceeding the track limits at Paddock Hill Bend. This time his best two times were deleted sending him down to thirteenth on the grid. Eng was promoted to third, where he was joined on the second row by Mirko Bortolotti.

On Saturday Eng held off huge pressure from Soucek to take his first win of the season.

He made a slow start, but Soucek was unable to capitalise and was forced to slot into second place with Surtees and Kazim Vasiliauskas fighting over third, a victory that would got to the Lithuanian for now.

That’s how it stood for quite a while, until lap ten when Hohenthal’s car slowed dramatically during his battle with Carlos Iaconelli, before coming to a complete stop just off the track.

He was deemed to have left it in a dangerous position, and the safety car was required while the marshals moved it to a position of safety.

After the safety car, Vasiliauskas went backwards. First Surtees passed him to take a podium on his home circuit, and then Wickens forced his way through dropping the Lithuanian down to fifth place.

Iaconelli was sixth, Milos Pavlovic seventh and Edoardo Piscopo in eighth to complete the points.

At the front Eng was still holding off Soucek, with the Spaniard looking in all directions trying to find a way past the Austrian, but Eng made his car just that little bit too wide when it mattered and held on to win by 0.494 seconds.

In the grand scheme of things the result of Sunday’s second race in completely irrelevant, as it will forever be remembered as the final hour of the life of eighteen year old Henry Surtees.

For the record Andy Soucek crossed the line first after three safety cars and three red flags, but on a day like this nobody really wins and the FIA Formula Two Championship had had a huge loss.

The race started in usual form with Soucek getting the best start and holding his lead, with Wickens slotting in behind in second and Aleshin jumping form fifth to third.

A rain shower on the second lap saw many incidents. Vasiliauskas and Pavlovic clashed at Paddock Hill Bend, Iaconelli also spun on the exit of Westfield, Tobias Hegewald sneaked inside Henry Surtees pushing the British driver onto the grass Crete on the outside of the corner causing him to spin, but he was able to resume after assistance.

The race was red flagged, and declared a wet race giving all the drivers the opportunity to change to wet tyres if they wished. After a ten minute delay the rain shower had passed, and the race resumed behind the first safety car with all drivers still on wet tyres.

Hohenthal was in the wars again. He ran wide and after a trip across the gravel he resumed but lost a lot of momentum and was hit front wheel to rear wheel by German Sanchez, who was shot up into the air almost like Christian Fittipaldi in Monza 1993, however his car did not flip over and he was able to escape the car with out major injury.

The indicant required the second safety car, while Sanchez was evacuated and his car moved to a position of safety.

After the restart all the top eight maintained their position, but behind Jack Clarke lost control of his car and stuck the barrier. A tyre came lose from his car which in a freak accident stuck Henry Surtees on the helmet. Surtees was knocked unconscious and went straight on into the barrier at the next corner.

The race was red flagged for a second time, as paramedics removed Surtees from his car and took him to the medical centre. He was stabilized before being flown by air ambulance to the Royal London hospital where he died from his injuries.

The race resumed later under the safety car but with all minds thinking of the then unknown condition of Surtees there was no further passing for the points paying positions. There was confusion as the timing screens showed an adjusted distance of fifteen laps before reverting back to the original nineteen laps once the fifteen had been completed.

After seventeen laps the red flag was thrown again as the thirty five minute time limit had reached almost an hour and a quarter, and the main attraction the World Touring Car Championship required the track.

For the record, the points scorers were Soucek as the winner, Wickens second and Aleshin third to complete the podium. Eng fourth, Bortolotti fifth, Hegewald sixth, Piscopo seventh and Jason Moore the last scorer in eighth were the rest of the scorers.

In the championship Soucek was extended his lead to seven points over Wickens. Soucek has forty six to Wickens thirty nine, after his first win Eng is now third with twenty seven who just take the position from Jousse, Hegewald and Bortolotti who all have twenty five.

Written: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:28:04