Race Report

Formula 1 Grosser Preis von Oesterreich 2016
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: RedBull Ring (A), Length 4,326 km, 02^th/03^th July 2016, Runde 3 & 4
www.projekt-spielberg.com

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2016:
Akash Nandy (MAS), Richard Gonda (SVK) and Oscar Tunjo (COL)

NO LUCK AT THE REDBULL RING

The GP3 Series teams met for the second event of the season as part of the Formula One programme at the Grosser Preis von Oesterreich 2016, on the RedBull Ring circuit near Zeltweg. Already in free practice on Friday it was clear that the 23-car strong field would produce a very close fight for positions.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 02/07/16, 09.45 – 10.15, Weather: Cloudy, 21°C

Free practice on Friday evening took place in hot, sunny conditions and our drivers shone in what was an excellent team performance: Oscar Tunjo was 4^th, Richard Gonda directly behind him in 5^th and Akash Nandy in 8^th place. 22 cars were within 0.983 seconds of the fastest time.
The track was also dry for the qualifying session on Saturday morning. Oscar managed to set the 7^th best time, while Richard and Akash were 20^th and 21^st respectively. In the morning they were unable to find the same good recipe for pace as they did the previous afternoon.

GP3 Series

Race One (40 Minutes)

Saturday, 02/07/16, 17.10, Weather: Overcast, 22°C

It had been raining in the afternoon, but the track was almost dry by the start of the race so everybody started on slick tyres. Oscar made a good start and drove a terrific first lap to be 5^th when he crossed the line at the end of lap 1. Richard also started well and managed to move up to 14^th and gained another place when Palou made a mistake and went straight into the gravel. Richard was now closing in on Calderon and was soon past her putting him 12^th. Unfortunately he then ran wide and promptly lost a few places. When it started raining Richard got embroiled in some hairy manoeuvres and he finally crossed the finish line in 19^th pace. Akash started well and was soon up to 18^th and making up positions steadily, keeping right on improving even when it started to rain. After an eventful race he took the flag in a good 12^th place. Oscar drove superbly and was able to pressurise Boschung and he was also able to cope well when it started to rain two thirds of the way through the race. Some of the drivers ahead of him nearly lost it and ran very wide but the order did not change. During this period Oscar managed to close in on Boschung overtook him in a neat move that put him 4^th, directly behind the leading ART threesome. However three laps from the end Oscar was shown the black and orange flag because one of his rear mirrors was loose. Oscar drove into the pitlane and had the mirror fixed but was 14^th by the time he could rejoin. This was a great pity, with a super result and a very good base for the 2^nd race both gone.

The grid for the second race of the weekend was set by reversing the order of the first eight finishers in the first race, with the rest of the places set according to finishing order in the first race.

GP3 Series

Race Two (30 Minutes)

Sunday, 03/07/16, 09.15, Weather: Rain, 13°C

Grey, wet and cold weather greeted the teams on Sunday morning and it was raining. The track was so wet in fact that the officials decided to start the race behind the Safety Car. The Safety Car stayed out because it was just too wet to let the field go and even then there were retirements, Richard among them. An electrical problem left him stranded out on track and he had to be towed away. By the midway point of the race the Safety Car was finally called in to make sure the race had a valid result. However they only managed two laps before the Safety Car had to be deployed again, because of several accidents. Next thing Akash slowed down and drove back to the pit lane. He had gone off track avoiding someone else and the car was full of mud. That was his race done. At the next restart everybody was keen to improve their positions despite the deluge and heavy spray not having improved much since the start of the “race”. Oscar had been steadily improving and was in a very good 8^th place but then he ran wide and lost several places, taking the chequered flag in 13^th place.

We are now looking forward to the next race in one week’s time at Silverstone (GB).

Championship standings after 4 out of 18 races:

1^st Charles Leclerc (F), 58 points; 2^nd Alexander Albon (THA), 53 points; 3^rd Antonio Fuoco (I), 42 points; 4^th Jake Hughes (GB), 31 points; 5^th Nick de Vries (NL), 31 points; 6^th Ralph Boschung (CH), 30 points; 8^th Oscar Tunjo (COL), 18 points

2016 GP3 Series

For more information:

• www.gp3series.com
• www.italiaracing.net