Race Report

2014 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Spa-Francorchamps (B), Length 7,003 km, 23^rd/24^th August 2014, Rounds 11 & 12
www.spa-francorchamps.be

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2014 mit:
Pal Varhaug (NOR), Mathéo Tuscher (CH) und Kevin Ceccon (I)

2x top ten for Varhaug at Spa

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 sixth outing out of a total of nine supporting the 2014 Grand Prix Programme. The third cockpit in the team was occupied by Kevin Ceccon.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 23/08/14, 09.45 – 10.15, Weather: Overcast, 11°C

For Friday evening’s free practice the temperature was a low 15°C. The track was first dry but soon damp, as some rain set in. Mathéo was able to set a very good time to claim 6^th, while Pal was 11^th and Kevin was 20^th.
It had been raining in the night, and there was also rain shortly before the quali session. The rain had stopped, and later on even the sun appeared quickly, but in the cool temperatures there was no drying line appearing. In these difficult conditions Mathéo reached 9^th place, Kevin was 15^th and Pal 21^st.

GP3 Series

Race One (30 Minutes)

Saturday, 23/08/14, 17.20, Weather: Overcast, 11°C

It had been raining in the afternoon and the track was still very damp. Mathéo and Pal choose slick tyres, Kevin opted for rain tyres. Already the green flag lap went chaotically. Kirchhofer made contact with the barriers, and there had to be long cleaning work done. At the much delayed start after another green flag lap things went as much higgledy piggledy as before. Kevin had passed all incidents and had moved up in 2^nd place. Mathéo was 9^th and Pal 14^th. Almost immediately several drivers went tot he pitlane to change tyres. Kevin did this in lap thee. Mathéo, who was already very fast underway on slicks, moved up in 2^nd place. Then it was easy for Mathéo to overtake poleman Ghiotto, who had started on rain tyres, and to take over the lead. Lap after lap he was driving faster and had already made a gap of more than 3 seconds to Stoneman. Then he lost his machine in Eau Rouge, spun and was able to stop the car on track, without any further damage. But the very tangible win was lost. Stoneman took over the lead, the Safety Car went on track. Pal moved up in ^thth place and Kevin, who had filed back in after his pit stop in 16^th place was now 13^th. After the restart there were just two laps to be driven. The track further dried off, but until the very end nobody reached the fast lap time, which Mathéo had delivered in his las lap (lap 7 out of 11). Most likely he had been just too fast underway – but the lost victory hurt a lot. Pal drove very well and he managed to bring home the excellent 5^th place. Kevin managed to move up a few places after the restart and finished in 11^th position.

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, 24/08/14, 09.25, Weather: Sunny, 10°C

After a cool night without any rain but with a lot of fog the track was now drying off this morning. The start was given on time. Pal came back in 6th place from the first lap, Kevin was 10^th and Mathéo 19^th. Lap times became quicker by the lap, and there were small movements throughout the field. Pal, who did a very good job this weekend got massively under pressure from Zamparelli. He countered several attacks but in the end Zamparelli was stronger and got past. Bernstorff managed to hang on to Zamparelli and shot past Pal as well. Pal was now in 8^th place and held this good position until the finishing line. With that he collected another point today. Kevin was under pressure from Mason, and in spite of delivering very fast lap times he was not able to keep him behind in the end. Now Kevin was 11^th and defended this position right to the end of the race. After he had shown very great enthousiasm yesterday Mathéo was driving very steadily today. He improved his lap times steadily but he never took any unnecessary risk. In the end he had moved up from 21^st position to 16^th place.

The next race will take place at the last venue in Europe in two week’s time at Monza (I).

Championship standings after 12 out of 18 races:

1^st Alex Lynn (GB), 153 points; 2^nd Richie Stanaway (NZ), 121 points; 3^rd Nick Yelloly (GB), 95 points; 4^th Emil Bernstorff (GB), 91 points; 5^th Jimmy Eriksson (SWE), 85 points; 6^th Dino Zamparelli (GB), 81 points; 11^th Mathéo Tuscher (CH), 25 points; 16^th Pal Varhaug (NOR), 11 points

2014 GP3 Series

For more information:

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