Race Report

GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Silverstone (GB), Lenght 5,901 km, 29^th/30^th June 2013, Rounds 5 & 6
www.silverstone.co.uk

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2013:
Samin Gomez (VEN), Patric Niederhauser (CH) and Alex Fontana (CH)

Fontana claims 1^st podium at Silverstone

The GP3 Series reconvened on the demanding new Silverstone Circuit, racing as one of the support races for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. This was their fourth outing supporting the 2013 Grand Prix Programme.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 29/06/13, 08.45 – 09.15, Weather: Cloudy, 15°C

It had been raining heavily on Friday, but the track dried off towards the evening and free practice was held in dry conditions. Alex finished 9^th, Patric was 23^rd (maybe he still had the LMP2 car and Le Mans from last week in his head?) and Samin was 26^th.
On Saturday morning it was also dry. Temperatures were still cool, but the sun tried hard to appear. The session was very exciting, with positions throughout the field changing frequently. In the end Alex managed to secure 4^th place on the grid, just 0.271 seconds off pole position. Patric claimed a place in the top ten (10^th) and Samin did her best and improved her lap time a lot compared to free practice. This brought her to 25^th on the grid. 15 cars were within a second of the pole time.

GP3 Series

Race One (30 Minutes)

Saturday, 29/06/13, 16.20, Weather: Sunny, 19°C

The sun was shining at the start of the first race but it didn’t make for an orderly getaway. Alex was taken by surprise by Kvyat and Daly, who both shot to the front and Patric didn’t get a good start either ending up as the filling in a sandwich. An unfortunate first lap found him back in 19^th place. At least Samin started well and was able to hold her position. Alex came under pressure from Ellinas, the Cypriot also managing to pass him, dropping Alex to 7^th. A bad accident between Fumanelli and Kujala made the deployment of the Safety Car necessary. Fortunately both drivers were fine, but the cars were heavily damaged and it took some time until the track was clear again. At the restart Yelloly managed to get past Alex, while Daly came in to serve his Drive Through penalty for jumping the start. That meant Alex stayed in 7^th, a position he held all the way to the flag. Because of the reverse grid situation this result gave him a good starting position for Sunday’s race. Patric had already made up a few positions before the Safety Car phase and he was 14^th after the restart. When Sainz made a mistake and fell back, coming back on right in front of Patric, Patric had all his attention on him. That allowed Lichtenstein to take advantage and slip past Patric, leaving Patric to finish in 15^th place, which was a great shame. Samin again drove a very strong race, avoiding any incidents and steadily improving her position. Claiming 20^th place provided her with a good result. A number of penalties were handed out after the race. Sainz was given a 10 place grid penalty for Sunday’s race, McKee was awarded a 20 second penalty, and Kujala was suspended from the second race. Patric and Samin both moved up the order.

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 the finishing order in the first race.

GP3 Series

Race Two (30 Minutes)

Sunday, 30/06/13, 08.25, Weather: Sunny, 19°C

It was foggy in the morning, but right on time for the race start the fog dissolved and the sun came out. It seemed that after the accidents and penalties from yesterday drivers were a bit better behaved today. However, there was still a three car collision at the start, though at least the Safety car was not needed to take control of the field this time. Venturini got away well, and so did Yelloly, both of them overtaking Alex at the first corner. Yelloly put pressure on Venturini and made a couple of attempts at passing, but Venturini defended his position. Alex kept up well with the two of them and made no mistakes, never giving Korjus, who was behind him, any chance to attack him. This time Patric was able to improve his position immediately, and was 11^th at the end of the first lap. The first 15 drivers were all lapping in the 1:49s, and overtaking was pretty much impossible unless the other driver made a mistake. The super hard compound Pirelli tyres proved themselves and from the middle of the race onwards the fastest lap times improved steadily as different drivers went quicker. Korjus was the man who set the fastest time on the very last lap. Patric held onto 11th all the way to the finishing line. Samin started well and was in 18^th place, close behind Cullen throughout the race and trying to pressure him into a mistake. She couldn’t see a way to pass him without risking everything through so she settled for a secure 18^th place. Venturini won the race from Yelloly, and Alex finished just behind them to claim an excellent 3^rd place. We were very pleased with his first podium!
The next race event will be part of the program of the F1 GP at the Nürburgring, Germany, on the weekend of 7^th July 2013.

Championship standings after 6 out of 16 races:

1^st Tio Ellinas (CYP), 69 points; 2^nd Kevin Korjus (EST), 59 points; 3^rd Conor Daly (USA), 51 points; 4^th Aaro Vainio (FIN), 44 points; 5^th Jack Harvey (GB), 42 points; 6^th Facu Regalia (ARG, 41 points; 9^th Patric Niederhauser (CH), 28 points; 10^th Carlos Sainz (E), 22 points; 13^th Alex Fontana (CH), 17 points

2013 GP3 Series

For more information:

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