Race Report

2015 Formula 1 Gran Premio d’Italia
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Sochi (RUS), Length 5.848 km, 10^th/11^th October 2015, Rounds 13 + 14
sochiautodrom.ru/en

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2015:
Pal Varhaug (NOR), Mathéo Tuscher (CH) and Ralph Boschung (CH)

No luck in Sochi

The GP3 Series met up at the intriguing Sochi (RUS) circuit, as ever in 2015 racing as one of the support races for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. The weather was changeable at first, and would play an important role in qualifying.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 10/10/15, 09.30 – 10.00, Weather: Cloudy, 16°C

The free practice session took place early on Friday evening. It rained during the afternoon, and conditions didn’t improve during the session. Ralph, for whom the track was new, handled the situation best of all to claim a superb 2^nd place. Then the session was red flagged and in the remaining six minutes no one managed to improve. Mathéo ended up 14^th, and Pal was 16^th.

On Saturday morning the track was still very damp in places. Mardenborough set the first fastest time on wet weather tyres, and it took the drivers until the middle of the session, until cars on slicks went faster. But then lap times started to tumble and with nearly every lap the lead changed. Mathéo was able to judge the conditions well and was near the top throughout the session. Managing to secure a sensational 2^nd place on the grid with his final lap, only 40 hundredths off Ocon’s pole time. At first Ralph was also running very well, but in the second half of the session he didn’t improve enough. That left him in 19^th. Unfortunately due to an electrical problem with his car, Pal was only able to run a handful of laps and would have to start from last on the grid.

GP3 Series

Race One (30 Minutes)

Sunday, 11/10/15, 09.00, Weather: Sunny, 16°C

On Saturday morning there was a massive accident in Formula 1 free practice. The driver was fortunately unhurt but the officials needed a lot of time to repair the barriers to the required standard. Because the Formula 1 Qualifying Session could not be moved, Saturday’s GP3 race was postponed and would be replaced with a 30 minute race on Sunday morning. There would be a second race of the same duration instead of the more normal race schedule.

The first race, now shortened by 10 minutes, started early on Sunday morning in bright sunshine. However the cars in 2^nd and 3^rd on the grid didn’t move. It was sheer luck that there was no accident. Mathéo’s drive shaft had broken, and he just managed to get back to the pitlane to retire. Ceccon, who got going in the end, crashed with Bosak shortly afterwards, and both were out of the race. Pal made a good start but got hit by another driver and had to park up on the outside of the track with a damaged rear wheel. Ralph managed to avoid all the incidents and was in 11^th place after the first lap when the Safety Car was deployed so that Ceccon and Bosak’s cars could be cleared away. At the restart Ralph attacked Celis straightaway and was able to pull off a brilliant overtaking move for 10^th. Ralph then found himself under pressure from Kirchhofer who really wanted to get into the top eight. Ralph defended well at first, but Kirchhofer sonn found his way past. That put Ralph 11^th again. He managed to get close to Janosz over the remaining laps, but it wasn’t enough to launch an attack and secure a place in the top ten. Ralph, who had started from 19^th, crossed the finish line in a good 11^th. Of course we all knew that we couldn’t repair a car with much damage on it, because the second race of the weekend was going to start a mere two hours after the finish of the first one.

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, 11/10/15, 11.30, Weather: Sunny, 18°C

Our team managed to repair the cars in the short time available, and all our cars were ready on the grid. However this weekend luck was definitely not on our side. On the green flag lap Ralph had to park his car with a broken driveshaft. Mathéo started well and moved up the order to 12^th at the end of the first lap, but he’d sustained damage to his front wing, and was unable to continue. He drove back to the pit lane where he had to retire from the race. Pal was up to 18^th at the end of lap one. He managed to slowly improve his position during the race and worked his way forward to 14^th place taking the flag in that position.

The next event of the GP3 Series will be held at Bahrain in 6 weeks time, as support to the FIA World Endurance Championship, one week before the last race event of the 2016 season, which will take place with Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Championship standings after 14 out of 18 races:

1^st Luca Ghiotto (I), 196 points; 2^nd Esteban Ocon (F), 194 points; 3^rd Emil Bernstorff (GB), 146 points; 4^th Marvin Kirchhofer (D), 144 points; 5^th Jimmy Eriksson (FIN), 85 points; 6^th Kevin Ceccon (I), 77 points; 11^th Ralph Boschung (CH), 27 points; 12^th Mathéo Tuscher (CH), 22 points; 19^th Pal Varhaug (NOR), 4 points

2015 GP3 Series

For more information:

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