Race Report

2015 WEC 6 hours of Bahrain
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Sakhir (BRN), Length 5.412 km, 20^th/21^st November 2015, Rounds 15 + 16
www.bahraingp.com

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

Boschung in the points in Bahrain

The GP3 Series met up at the demanding Sakhir (BRN) circuit, this time as part of the FIA WEC 6 hours of Bahrain program. This event also provided a replacement GP2 Series race for the cancelled F1 German Grand Prix round. The weather was sunny and very warm as expected.

Race One Qualifying

Thrusday, 19/11/15, 09.35 – 10.20, Weather: Sunny, 29°C

The free practice session took place on Thursday morning. The track was new to all our drivers and so the aim was to find a good strategy for qualifying and the race during the session, because the circuit is known to be very hard on tyres. Mathéo finished 9^th, Ralph was 14^th and Pal 15^th, none of them running on new tyres.
The qualifying session took place a mere two hours after the end of free practice. By then the temperature had risen from 26°C to 29°C so in the heat of the day things got serious. Lap times were very close and although our drivers did well, they may have been too cautious concerning the use of the tyres. They ended the session with Ralph in 12^th, Pal 15^th and Mathéo 19^th.

GP3 Series

Race One (40 Minutes)

Friday, 20/11/15, 13.25, Weather: Sunny, 27°C

The race began with a ferocious first lap. There was some hard fighting and a lot of movement. Ralph made it through into 10th and set a good pace before he was surprised by Isaakyan, but he quickly managed to take back the position in a clever manoeuvre. After a long run, during which he tried to take care of his tyres, he managed to overtake Ceccon to move up to 9^th. However, towards the end of the long race his tyres began to degrade, and despite battling hard, he couldn’t stop Fuoco taking 9^th place from him on the very last lap. Nevertheless Ralph added another point to his score with this excellent 10^th place. Pal worked his way quickly up to 13^th but he had been hit by another car during the first hectic lap and his rear wing was damaged. He never stopped fighting and overtook Morris, but was then shown the black/orange flag, which meant he had to come into the pits because of the damage to his car. Unfortunately his good race came to a premature end as a result. Mathéo was involved in several battles, but was able to improve his position steadily. In the middle part of the race he was 16^th for several laps, but when the tyres wore out on several other cars Mathéo managed to move up to a very good 12^th place by the end.

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)

Saturday, 21/11/15, 09.05, Weather: Sunny, 23°C

Despite the sun shining again this morning, the temperature wasn’t as high as it had been for race one the day before. Nevertheless the first lap was again hectic. Early on another driver ran over Pal’s rear wheel, launching him into the air from where he made a hard landing. Several corners later Stuvik missed his braking point and swept Mathéo off track with great force. Stuvik hit the tyre wall, and Mathéo was left with a heavily damaged car as well. The Safety Car took over the field but on lap three the race was red flagged and stopped. The survivors drove back to the pitlane where they waited until all damaged cars had been cleaned away before they were led back on track by the Safety Car, which stayed out for a lap. Ralph managed the restart well and kept 11^th place, but then a hard battle for positions began. Ralph kept pushing because Palou was pressuring him from behind. Ralph held his position and in the meantime gained on Janosz. He managed to overtake Janosz, but Palou also followed through. Together they closed the gap to Gilbert who resisted their overtaking attempts, fending them off fiercely. Ralph finally managed to pass him in a brilliant manoeuvre, and Palou took advantage of the situation to go through as well. Ralph drove well, managing to keep Palou behind until the chequered flag claiming a top ten place in an excellent 9^th place.

The next and final event of the 2015 GP3 Series will take place in one week’s time as usual with Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

Championship standings after 16 out of 18 races:

1^st Luca Ghiotto (I), 227 points; 2^nd Esteban Ocon (F), 225 points; 3^rd Marvin Kirchhofer (D), 173 points; 4^th Emil Bernstorff (GB), 172 points; 5^th Jimmy Eriksson (FIN), 97 points; 6^th Kevin Ceccon (I), 77 points; 11^th Ralph Boschung (CH), 28 points; 13^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