Race Report

2011 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Spa-Francorchamps (B), Length 7,003 km, 27^th/28^th August 2011, Rounds 13 & 14
www.spa-francorchamps.be

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2011:
Nico Müller (CH), Maxim Zimin (RUS) and Alex Fontana (CH)

Podium for Müller and Top Ten for Fontana

The GP3 Series met up at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps (B) circuit, as ever racing as one of the support races for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix. This was their seventh outing out of a total of eight supporting the 2011 Grand Prix Programme.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 27/08/11, 09.45 – 10.15, Weather: Overcast, 16°C

As usual the weather played its part at Spa. It had rained overnight night, so everyone started the session on wet weather tyres. About halfway through it began to look as if a change to slick tyres might be possible, but only a few dared to try it. Only in the closing stages of the session did it become apparent that the gamble would pay off. Nico, Maxim and Alex all preferred to stay on rain tyres until the end of the session. Nico secured 9^th place on the grid. Newcomer Alex put in a good performance despite the difficult conditions and managed to finish the session in the first part of the field in 15^th while Maxim fell back a little in the last minutes of the session and finished 21^st. Felix da Costa was awarded a penalty after the session and all our drivers moved up one place in the classification.

GP3 Series

Race One (30 Minutes)

Saturday, 27/08/11, 17.20, Weather: Rain, 15°C

It was wet and the rain fell steadily throughout the entire race. Yelloly fell off on the first lap, which left Nico in 7th, but Sims was soon able overtake him, putting Nico back to 8th again. In what was a difficult race he defended this position well until Sims made a mistake and fell off, which let Nico take the chequered flag in an excellent 7th place. Alex treated the conditions with caution and lost several places at the start, but he managed to avoid all the accidents and drove carefully to make up a number of places, eventually crossing the finishing line in 14th. Maxim started very well and was already up to 13th when he was awarded a drive through penalty for starting out of position after he lined up about a metre back from the grid line painted on the track … Maxim came in to take the penalty and then, shortly after he returned to the race, he braked on a slippery patch of track, spun and damaged his car against the tyre wall. Unfortunately that was the end of his race.
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, 28/08/11, 09.20, Weather: Cloudy, 12°C

This morning only a few clouds still remained, and the track was mostly dry. Nico got a good start, but Stanaway managed to overtake him on the uphill straight, diving out of his slipstream. Nico was left to fight with Quaife-Hobbs. They swapped places, but even so Nico ended up in front. Meanwhile Calado closed in on the two, and got involved in the battle as well, managing to overtake Nico. After that the order stayed the same until the end of the race with Stanaway leading from Calado and Nico. Nico was very pleased with his podium position and the important points he collected for it. Alex felt good today and managed to make up a place on nearly every lap, getting a good run and overtaking his rivals one after another. He finished a very strong race in an excellent 6^th place, scoring a point too, which was very important for the team rankings. Maxim also started very well but then got tangled up in the usual midfield fights, which make it difficult for any driver involved in them. Nevertheless he also managed to improve his position steadily and to finish the race 9 positions ahead of where he started, in 15^th.

Championship standings after 14 out of 16 races:

1^st Valtteri Bottas (FIN), 52 points; 2^nd James Calado (GB), 47 points; 3^rd Nigel Melker (NL), 38 points; 4^th Alexander Sims (GB), 34 points; 5^th Adrien Quaife-Hobbs, 33 points; 6^th Lewis Williamson (GB), 31 points; 8^th Nico Müller (CH), 28 points; 23^rd Alex Fontana (CH), 1 point

2011 GP3 Series

For more information:

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