Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
Round 4 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship was a really good one for myself and the team.
Finally, we had dry weather forecast across the whole weekend, and that combined with the fact that this is a circuit which asks a lot of the tyres, this would be the first time that I have had to completely deal with the degradation of the Pirelli tyre.
Practice on Friday morning went well in warm conditions even though it was fairly early in the day. On the first run after preparing the tyres with my two out laps when I went to push, I found that they weren’t really there, and the understeer was quite challenging. However, on the second one I revised my warm up procedure and the grip was much better. To finish the session inside the top 10 at P9 was a great start to the event.
The key is to deliver the lap time at the right time, and with each of the two sets of tyres having 2 push laps in them each, in theory there are 4 opportunities. With the circuit getting quicker through the session, in reality the lap time is going to come from the second set of tyres most of the time, and within that, usually the final push at the end.
I was pleased to put together a good lap on my first push on the second set which put me up to P14. Our timing was great for the second flying lap, and I was expecting to cross the line with around 10 – 15 seconds to spare to finish right at the end of the session. However, the traffic was huge at the end of the lap with everyone slowing up to make a space before starting their final lap. If I held back, I wouldn’t cross the start line in time, so I had to pass a number of cars and then make a move on another down the start finish straight as I just started the lap with less than a second to spare. In making the move I had to compromise my line into turn 1, so my first lap was the one that counted and put me in a solid position of P15 to start Race 1.
Photo: Dutch Photo Agency
This became P16 in the morning prior to the race when a driver had their deleted lap reinstated after review. In the race, I got away to a reasonable start before one of the drivers at the front of the field left the track through the gravel and then rejoined in front of me. With cars to my left there was nothing I could do other than lift off the throttle to avoid contact and in the process I dropped to P21.
From there I was pleased to drive a really good race, moving up to finish in P14 with the highlight being a move I made on two drivers at once into the very fast Copse corner.
Race 2 I started from P14 and this time not getting off to my best start fell back to P16 before making my way back up to P14 to finish including a move to gain a position on the final lap.
Overall it was a very good weekend, with two very solid finished in such an incredibly strong 30 car field. The team at Jenzer Motorsport did a fantastic job with the car all weekend, and I can’t wait for Round 5 kicking off here again tomorrow!
Thanks as always for the support,
Calan