Race report

2011 Formula 1 British Grand Prix
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Silverstone (GB), Length 5,901 km, 09^th / 10^th July 2011, Rounds 7 & 8
www.silverstone.co.uk

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2011:
Nico Müller (CH), Maxim Zimin (RUS) and Vittorio Ghirelli (I)

Müller wins in 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 2011 Grand Prix Programme.

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Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 09/07/11, 08.45 – 09.15, Weather: Sunny, 14°C

Free practice yesterday was more wet than dry, but for the qualifying session the sun finally came out. Nico was at the top of the list for quite some time, but in the final five minutes of the session lap times again started tumbling. In the end he finished the session in an excellent 6^th place, while Maxim and Vittorio were well placed in the midfield with 15^th and 19^th places respectively on the grid.

GP3 Series

Race One (30 Minutes)

Saturday, 09/07/11, 16.20, Weather: Rain, 18°C

The sky was a treacherous colour and the decision concerning the tyre choice was not simple. Seconds before the green flag lap began the heavens opened and it started to rain. Nineteen of the 30 drivers pulled straight back into the pit lane to change tyres while the remaining 11 took up their proper positions on the starting grid. The second group was just in time to get out of the pit lane again when the race started. Jenzer Motorsport on the other hand had played it right and Nico, Maxim and Vittorio all began the race on wet weather tyres. Christensen got a better start than Nico, but a few corners later Nico outbraked Christensen and took the lead before the end of the first lap. He then began to build a gap to the chasing pack of as much as seven seconds at times. About two thirds of the way through the race the rain had almost completely stopped, but the decision to start on rain tyres was worth gold! Nico won his first race of the season comfortably. Behind him a fierce fight for positions was going on between the drivers who had started from the pit lane. Vittorio was 4^th by the end of the first lap, but then found the slippery track very tricky, and had a big off track moment which dropped him back to 19^th. He regained a few places to finish the race in 16^th. Maxim was just behind Vittorio in 5^th place after the first lap, and then held station for most of the race. Towards the end of the race he started to lose pace and places and finally crossed the finishing line in 14^th. After the race the officials found that he had caused an avoidable accident that saw Laine go off. After the incident Maxim’s battery stopped working which slowed him down towards the end, and he was then punished for his action by being excluded from today’s classification, and being suspended from Sunday’s 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, 10/07/11, 08.20, Weather: Cloudy, 14°C

This morning the track was dry and the sky looked friendly, and that made the tyre choice very easy. Nico held his place at the start and managed to overtake Haryanto a couple of laps later. However, he then came under tremendous pressure and could not defend his place. First Haryanto took his position back and then Daly slipped past as well. Nico seemed to have lost his rhythm, because when da Costa and Melker attacked him he was unable to put up much resistance. Nico left his braking far too late and that let both of them through. After that Nico was glued to 11^th place until the end of the race. Vittorio was also completely out of luck today. Initially he was running in a great 12^th place but then he went off track and lost several places, finally finishing 22^nd . Compared with yesterday’s race this was quite a disappointing result.

Championship standings after 8 out of 16 races:

1^st Alexander Sims (GB), 29 points; 2^nd Mitch Evans (NZ), 26 points; 3^rd Nigel Melker (NL), 22 points; 4^th James Calado (GB), 21 points; 5^th Andrea Caldarelli (I), 20 points; 6^th Lewis Williamson (GB), 19 points; 9^th Nico Müller (CH), 14 points

2011 GP3 Series

For more information:

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