Hampus Ericsson took a hard-fought Race Three victory to kick-start his British F3 season in a tightly contested final outing of the weekend.
Ericsson led home Clement Novalak, who himself completed a solid weekend for Carlin Motorsport while teammate Kaylen Frederick completed the podium, holding off the hard charging Ayrton Simmons as the top four cars were covered by two seconds on the road.
Early Championship contender Johnathan Hoggard’s race ended early with a crash at the start of the race, with the man from Lincolnshire having started from pole position and previously targeting the Championship lead pre-race.
For Hoggard however, a great weekend was soured somewhat on the first lap when he and Verhagen battled into the Wilson’s hairpin to collide and in the process take Jewiss out of the race with them.
All three retired on the spot, with the drivers appearing to disagree as to the cause of the incident.
Manuel Maldonado was a solid fifth place to finish his weekend with some form of a flourish ahead of Nazim Azman, with Ulysse De Pauw seventh to turn around a previously wretched weekend.
Benjamin Pedersen had to make yet another recovery drive to finish eight, Josh Mason picked up his best finish of the season with ninth place and Kris Wright completed the top ten for the first time this season.
The incident between Verhagen, Hoggard and Jewiss is being investigated after the race.
Clement Novalak felt that he extracted the maximum from his Carlin British F3 package after finishing second in the first race of the weekend at Snetterton on Saturday.
Novalak had started pole but wasn’t entirely happy with the feel of his car and lost the lead to Johnathan Hoggard midway through the race.
“I am still pretty happy with P2 considering the pace we had. Obviously it is a little disappointing to lose the lead on a mistake rather than a normal overtake.
“I’ve been struggling with the brakes, but I’d rather finish P2 than have a crash or an off. The more points we can take, the better and P2 is the best we could have done today on the pace we had.”
Despite not being comfortable on Saturday, Novalak insists that there are positives to be had from the result in Race One.
“It’s a definite positive that there’s more to come and it shows how much potential we have and that when we maximise our potential we’ll be a force.”
“It’s about consistency, Johnathan has been really consistent as well but that’s what will make you a winner at the end of the year, if you’re consistent every race. We were P2 today and if we can salvage some points in the reverse grid race tomorrow and then from P5 we can get a podium in Race Three.”
For Sunday morning’s Race Two, where the entire finishing order from Race One is reversed with points awarded for overtaking, the young Brit is confident that he can gain places, and points.
“You can definitely overtake easier here a lot easier than Oulton Park, there’s a lot of long straights even if there tends to be fast corners just before braking points so that makes it slightly harder. You probably have to come from a longer way back, all in all it should be fun tomorrow.”
After another blistering lap in qualifying which landed her on pole position for a second time, Jamie Chadwick lined up at the front of the pack at Zolder this afternoon, with Beitske Visser in P2, and fellow Brit Alice Powell in P3.
Reserve drivers Vivien Keszthelyi and home-girl Sarah Bovy both made their debut appearances in Belgium today. Keszthelyi had to step in for Finn Emma Kimiläinen after she was taken ill and was advised not to race.
The race got off to a rather confusing start as yellow flags, caused by smoke pluming from the back of Sarah Bovy’s car as the rest of the pack darted away from their grid slots. The safety car was brought out to clear the stricken car.
W Series
Amid the confusion, Dutchwoman Beitske Visser ran into turn one and took the lead from championship leader Jamie Chadwick.
With 24 minutes remaining, Emsee Hawkey and Keszthelyi made contact, resulting in both spinning off-track. Gosia Rdest also got caught up in the incident, and the safety car was deployed once again. All three were investigated for the incident, with Rdest was also sent to the stewards for an alleged jump start.
Racing got underway again with 17 minutes remaining, with Visser quickly making a gap to second-placed Chadwick.
Miki Koyama made an excellent move at the restart whilst overtaking Caitlin Wood for P8, the Australian struggling to keep position over the Japanese driver.
With 12 minutes remaining, Visser led by 1.5 seconds. Marta Garcia was put under a lot of pressure from Sarah Moore behind in P4, with Pepper and Fabienne Wohlwent fighting hard for P5. American Sabre Cook was given a drive through penalty for causing a collision, slotting into last place once she had rejoined the field.
W Series
With two minutes remaining in the second round of the W Series championship, Alice Powell touched Jamie Chadwick whilst attempting an overtake, but managed to make the move stick and snatched P2 from her fellow Brit. Chadwick didn’t give up though, and gave Alice Powell a tough fight for the second spot on the podium. She eventually managed to snatch the position back on the final lap. The duo were 4.5 seconds behind leader Visser, who was having an impeccable race.
24-year-old Beitske Visser took an impressive victory in Zolder during a race filled with wheel-to-wheel action. Round three of the championship will commence in Italy at the Misano World Circuit on 8th June.
Fortec’s Johnathan Hoggard was pleased to punish mistakes on Saturday at Snetterton as he took a Race One win and a Race Three pole position.
Hoggard lined up second for Race One but made his pressure count as polesitter Clement Novalak slid wide to allow Hoggard through.
“My start could have been slightly better, I got a bit of wheelspin but I still almost passed Clement at turn two on the opening lap, he’d gone a bit wide and I was so close to getting the move done around the outside at turn three but again I didn’t quite manage it.
“It was then just a case of following him and seeing if he made a mistake, which he did at turn two again. I managed to pass him there when he went wide.”
“I was a bit closer than before, I think he made a mistake a couple of laps beforehand at the last corner, it’s just mostly flat through turn one. I managed to keep that momentum going and I think he was too late on the brakes and locked up and ran really wide, and I was able to sweep through.”
Hoggard is looking to add consistency to his repertoire having felt that it was at times lacking during his British F4 campaign last season, with two top-four finishes at Oulton Park preceding the win on Saturday.
“At this stage you want to take as many points as you can, luckily for me I’ve managed to do that this season so far. Starting P2 and taking P1 is a really good result so hopefully we can go again for race three.”
Clement Novalak was miffed at a drop-off in pace that saw his second-fastest lap over six tenths of a second away from his Race One pole lap.
The second fastest lap of a driver is important in British F3 this season as it sets your grid position for the final race of the weekend on Sunday afternoon.
Carlin driver Novalak will start Race Three in fifth, after taking pole positon for Race One.
“Either there was a massive peak on my tyres or the track got a lot, lot worse throughout that session so we weren’t able to get a great second lap.
“I think my pole lap wasn’t anything incredible to be honest and it’s a shame the track fell away so quickly so I couldn’t get a second lap done.”
The British driver felt that the track was considerably different from Friday testing as a result of Snetterton’s wind-sensitive nature.
“The track changed massively from yesterday in that there was no wind today compared to yesterday, all in all despite the second lap I am pretty happy with the job I did.
“Starting fifth, I’ve put a lot of work on myself for Race Three but it is all to play for and it’s a lot easier to overtake than at Oulton so if we have the pace in the race then we can grab a couple of positions in the race. It could be fun on Sunday.”
Second on the grid Johnathan Hoggard was more upbeat, with the man from Lincolnshire starting pole for Race Three by virtue of his second-best lap being faster than anyone else’s.
“With my fastest sectors I would have pushed for pole position in Race One so it’s slightly disappointing for myself not being able to do that, but I am still on the front row for Race One, there’s Race Two and I’m pole for Race Three so it’s still very good.
“There are long straights here, you can get a good slipstream here if you’re close enough but it’s still difficult to pass because there are a lot of fast corners, but there are a lot more possibilities than at Oulton Park.”
Hoggard, who wants better consistency from his season with British F4, has a plan for this weekend at Snetterton.
“It is all about being consistent with your points scoring, getting the good results in Race One and Three and picking up places in Race Two without getting into trouble because of the points for overtaking.”
Carlin Motorsport’s Clement Novalak will start Saturday’s British F3 race at Snettertton from pole position after a tight qualifying battle between himself and Johnathan Hoggard.
Fortec driver Hoggard was 0.044s behind Novalak’s 1:43.533 after setting the initial pace and will start from pole position for Race Three on Sunday afternoon by virtue of his setting the fastest second-best lap.
Kiern Jewiss will start from third on Saturday afternoon, just a tenth away from pole position, ahead of a rejuvenated Hampus Ericsson and a solid fifth place for Neil Verhagen – the Double R duo in fourth and fifth separated by just 0.081s.
Chris Dittman Racing’s Ayrton Simmons – a podium finisher from Oulton Park four weeks ago – will go from sixth ahead of Oulton polesitter Kaylen Frederick and Manuel Maldonado.
Sweden’s Lucas Petersson qualified ninth ahead of Thai driver Sassakorn Chaimongkol, with early pacesitter Benjamin Pedersen eventually finding himself down in 11th to share row six with Malaysia’s Nadim Azman.
Ulysse De Pauw will be disappointed to find himself 13th, Pavan Ravishankar starts fourteenth while the back row comprises of Kris Wright and Josh Mason.
After five minutes of shadow boxing from the runners and riders as the cars got used to new track conditions, Hoggard punched in the first representative hot lap of the session to take pole away from Pedersen, who was the early pacesetter with Chaimongkol.
Hoggard looked like he wouldn’t be headed until five minutes from the end when Novalak, another who took his time to get used to track conditions, snatched pole away by the smallest of margins.
Elsewhere, Keirn Jewiss rescued a third from an initially middling qualifying session, Hampus Ericsson moved back to form after a slow Oulton Park during which he often found himself towards the back of the field and Kaylen Frederick backed up his speed from the Easter Weekend with a top-ten starting position, where he will be hoping for a quieter and calmer weekend after an action-packed Bank Holiday Monday.
20-year-old Brit Jamie Chadwick started from pole position in the first ever W Series race this afternoon in Hockenheim.
The 18 female drivers took to the grid in their mechanically identical Formula 3 race cars to begin the 30-minute race.
Chadwick made a good start going into turn one, but she outbraked herself at the hairpin, going wide and giving the lead to Sarah Moore.
Canadian driver Megan Gilkes and Emma Kimilainen from Finland made contact going down the straight into the hairpin, bringing the safety car out and forcing the duo to retire from the race. Fortunately, both were okay.
Credit: W Series
As the safety car period ended, three Brits led the field: Moore, Chadwick and Alice Powell in third.
Sarah Moore went wide at turn one at the restart which gave Chadwick back her lead. Spaniard Marta Garcia made some brave moves and moved up to third position while Moore fell down to P6.
Dutch racer Beitske Visser and Fabienne Wohlwend from Liechtenstein were fighting it out for P4 as Powell went on a charge for the lead, gaining quickly on Jamie Chadwick.
Credit: W Series
The middle of the pack were bunched up for much of the race. Japanese driver Miki Koyama was doing a superb job, progressing up to 9th from her starting position of 17th with ten minutes of the race remaining. She fought hard with Esmee Hawkey, Vicky Piria and Australian Caitlin Wood for the final points in the top ten.
With less than five minutes to go, Chadwick pulled out a comfortable gap in the lead, as Powell began to defend 2nd position from 18-year-old Garcia, the youngest driver on the grid.
Italy’s Vicky Piria dropped to P15 after having a spin and picking up a marker board in sector two before rejoining the pack.
Credit: W Series
After a difficult start, Jamie Chadwick claimed her maiden victory in the W Series, winning the maximum of 25 points and making motorsport history. Fellow Brit Alice Powell and Spain’s Marta Garcia joined her on the podium in 2nd and 3rd.
Visser finished in 4th, followed by Moore, Wohlwend, Koyama, Pepper, Rdest and Wood rounding out the top ten.
It was a thrilling first race in Hockenheim for the W Series, and hopefully, one of many more. Round two of this new and exciting series will take place on the 18th May in Zolder, Belgium.
Robin Frijns scored his first ever win in Formula E, becoming the eighth different winner this season and keeping the winning streak intact as he triumphed in adverse weather conditions at the Paris ePrix this weekend. Frijns, the first Dutchman to win a race in the series, started from P3 but took advantage of the failures of both Nissans and fought off an attacking Lotterer and damage to his front wing from contact with Sebastien Buemi to claim his first well-deserved win of the series and subsequently took the championship lead.
Qualifying proved critical due to the significantly narrowed streets that make up the Paris circuit. The first group again struggled to extract performance on track with previous race winner Mitch Evans languishing at the bottom of the timing screens due to a scrappy lap. The second group did not fare much better with hometown hero Jean-Eric Vergne only managing to grasp P5 and Sam Bird scrapping into P8. BMW’s heartache continued as Antonio Felix da Costa could only manage P9. However, it was Envision Racing’s Frijns who managed to snatch the top spot with a super-aggressive lap that left him as the man to beat.
Group three benefited from improving track conditions as Oliver Rowland soon claimed the top spot by one-tenth of a second with teammate Buemi, Pascal Wehrlein and Felipe Massa all slotting themselves into superpole contention. The final group failed to threaten the top six drivers, with Dragon’s Jose Maria Lopez the only promise only to run wide at turn 3, ruining his lap, leaving Rowland, Wehrlein, Buemi, Frijns, D’Ambrosio, and Massa to snatch the pole away.
Credit: LAT/Formula E
Massa took to the track first in superpole, earning himself an impressive time of 1.01.217. D’Ambrosio followed, but struggled and had to settle behind the Brazilian after a scrappy lap left him adrift by a hundredth of a second. Frijns continued his impressive run of form with another aggressive lap, slotting himself into P1 before he was disposed by Buemi on his run.
However, as the time ticked down, it once again became a battle of the rookies as Wehrlein again showed his impressive form, moving into the coveted top spot by a margin of four tenths. Only Rowland could challenge the Mahindra man, but fell short and had to settle for another front row start, leaving Wehrlein to claim his second pole of the season. However, celebrations were short-lived as both Wehrlein and D’Ambrosio were demoted to the back of the grid after failing scrutineering due to tyre pressures, leaving Rowland to inherit the top spot.
Due to rain showers just before the start, the race began under safety car due to the adverse track conditions causing unfair disadvantages. Rowland held the lead as racing commenced and Lotterer began to pile pressure on Maxi Gunther for P5, eager to move up the standings. However, Rowland’s luck soon ran out as the Nissan rookie locked up, sending him flying into the barriers at turn 10 as his teammate Buemi moved into the lead.
With Frijns moving into P2, he began to pressure Buemi for the lead of the race, forcing the two to make contact as Buemi attempted to activate his attack mode. Frijns expressed concern over his front wing which had become dislodged during the incident but was told to continue as Lotterer soon disposed of Gunther for P4, as the German rookie too armed himself with attack mode and immediately began to chase after Massa.
Credit: LAT/Formula E
Like his teammate before him, Buemi locked up two laps later on turn 8 allowing Frijns to force his way past and into the lead of the race as the heavens opened over the circuit. Rain battered the course as Lotterer forced his way past Massa and began hunting down Frijns for the lead. However, he was hindered by a series of full course yellows as the drivers struggled in the difficult conditions including a nasty shunt for BMW’s Alex Sims and Jaguar’s Alex Lynn, who was taken out by Edo Mortara in the dying stages of the race. Massa held P3 for much of the race, only to spin out losing his podium spot with Daniel Abt able to capitalise on the Brazilian’s mistake. As the rain continued, Frijns held firm from Lotterer’s attack and claimed victory at the first wet race in Formula E history.
25-year-old Italian racer Vicky Piria is one of eighteen women who recently made the final line-up of the historic W-Series, the first ever all-female racing championship.
Testing at the Lausitzring circuit in eastern Germany concluded on 16th April, with the drivers having gotten their first chance to put the Tatuus T-318 Formula 3 car used in the series through its paces.
Fresh from that test, Vicky was kind enough to speak to us about her career and her hopes for the upcoming season.
Her interest in motorsport was sparked as a young girl, introduced to it through her father.
“I became interested in motorsport in a completely casual way,” Vicky said. “I was always a bit of a tomboy and I loved horse-riding. My dad one day bought a go-kart for my brother – I was very curious and competitive so decided to give it a try… Then it all started.”
Back in 2012, she became the first female driver to compete in GP3 when she raced for the Trident team.
“I believe there are a lot more female drivers today, which is a good thing. When I was racing at the time it was all new so people found it difficult at times to see me as a normal driver. But, with more female examples now, it will become more ‘normal’.”
Fast-forward to 2019 and, as mentioned, Vicky will be competing in W Series. She believes that her participation in the series has re-opened doors that she thought closed to her a while ago.
Credit: Colin McMaster/LAT Images/W Series
“Before the W Series opportunity came along, I was not expecting at all to get back into a single-seater – I was simply hopping in some GT rides and continuing my career in those.
“W Series gave me the opportunity to continue what I started at a younger age: single-seater racing. At the moment I am focusing on the now. I want to do my absolute best this season and see day-by-day what the future will bring.”
Selection for the championship comprised of two sections narrowing the pool of drivers down first from 60 to 28, and then from 28 to the final 18.
“They were both difficult, tiring and the pressure was definitely on,” Vicky said, “but it was also a good opportunity to learn new things. In Melk we were driving often on snow and ice, not quite typical for me. Making it through was my main goal – I knew I could do it and it was very important for me.”
The final 18 drivers recently got their first chance to test the series’ Formula 3-spec car, and Vicky was upbeat about how it felt to drive.
“The car is very cool, as is any single-seater. It is very different to the F3 car I drove back in 2013. It is heavier, bigger, and it requires a different driving style just like its Hankook tyres.
“I am still adapting, but after the first test in Lausitzring we definitely made a step ahead. I must say, it looks amazing!”
Credit: Colin McMaster/LAT Images/W Series
Vicky set herself the target of top-five finishes, but admitted that concrete predictions are somewhat difficult to pin down at the moment.
“There will be a lot of attention on this championship and there are only six races, so it will be a very tough competition – all of us will absolutely go with it. It is very difficult to make expectations as it is all a totally new thing.”
When asked whether it was fair to say there was a lot of camaraderie between the drivers, Vicky said, “It is true – I think that as we are all put constantly in the same identical situation and in a fair and meritocratic system, we all feel in the same boat.
“There is a lot of mutual support and we push each other a lot. But, still, we need to do the first race – maybe things will change?
Finally, Vicky had some advice to give to other women looking for a career in motorsport.
“The series is getting people talking, a lot. This gives much more awareness about female drivers and is a big opportunity for the youngest to look up to.
“The advice I want to give is to work hard but to absolutely not forget to enjoy it along the way – happy drivers are faster drivers. Regarding being a female: it is normal – act like it is normal.”
Johnathan Hoggard says his Race Three victory was all about taking his chances after profiting from other’s mistakes at Oulton Park.
The Fortec driver took advantage of Ayrton Simmons and Clement Novolak’s troubles at Hislop’s to move from third to first in an exciting final race in Cheshire.
Hoggard says he saw it coming.
“Ayrton got a poor exit out the chicane and Clement got alongside him on the outside. I just saw what was going to happen as you can’t get two cars through there so it was a case of just letting them sort themselves out and getting around the outside of the pair of them.
“I wasn’t expecting it to happen as it did as they’re both experienced drivers so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but when you see the two of them make a mistake like that, you have to be opportunistic.”
Having started second, the British F4 graduate slipped behind Novolak on the opening lap and admits he needs to improve his starts.
“I made a mistake at the start with my clutch control, we need to come back to Snetterton stronger with that so we’re going to do lots of preparation for that. It was a case of just making no mistakes, putting people under pressure and taking opportunities that came my way, and I managed to do that.”
Hoggard is targeting more consistency this season after a run of poor form hampered his F4 championship hopes.
“I need to be more consistent with results this year, last year it was my mid season that let me down in terms of the Championship. It’s just a case of getting those good results as we have done this weekend and seeing where we are at the end of this season.”
Second on the grid Johnathan Hoggard was more upbeat, with the man from Lincolnshire starting pole for Race Three by virtue of his second-best lap being faster than anyone else’s.
