Category: Open Wheel Racing

Jamie Caroline’s dominant display ensured that he continued his winning return to Carlin with victory in Race One at Brands Hatch.

He led home Double R’s Linus Lundqvist and Nicolai Kjaergaard, the former extending his championship lead to 125 points, while Billy Monger was fourth.

Sun Yue Yang made it four Carlin cars in the top five ahead of Kush Maini in sixth, with last year’s winner Krish Mahadik edging out Manuel Maldonado, Tom Gamble and Sasskorn Chaimongkol.

Caroline, who’s replacing the injured Clement Novalak, was delighted with his second win in four, and praised his relationship with Carlin.

“It’s a shame we didn’t start the season! It’s been great to link up with Carlin again, every time I come into the weekend it’s done to me because the car will be good, it adds a little pressure to do well.

“Quick teammates push me on a little bit, obviously I’m here as a sub for Clement (Novolak, who has a broken thumb) so I am trying my best to do a better job than them really. I wouldn’t say I’m doing  much better job but I’m doing as good a job as I can given that I’ve not had as much time in the car its my second weekend in F3, we got a race win at Spa albeit a reverse grid win but a win’s a win.”

After winning from eighth at Spa in the reverse grid race, Caroline was happier with a more traditional route to the flag, and credited an aggressive formation lap build for building a three-second lead early on in the race.

“Here a lights to flag win always feels a bit better, after all these years it’s great to be driving for Carlin again, two wins in two events isn’t bad. I got a lot of heat in my tyres, I’ve never worked tyres harder and I was knackered after that! I pushed like I was on a qually lap from the off, got the gap and then it was about maintaining that gap and looking after the car.

£I wish this was until the end of the season but I think it’s until whenever he’s fit enough to come back in, it may be Donnington clashes with his Euro programme, fingers crossed I can get something together for then.”

After a difficult Spa two weeks again, Kjaergaard was relieved to be back to form this weekend.

“It was great to get back on the podium after such a long time, I’d have preferred P1 or P2 after starting second but we got on the podium and the fastest lap, which is important for the Race Three grid.

“There’s still second on the table and I want to finish the season as well as I can.”

Linus Lundqvist had earlier pledged to go all out for the victory despite a huge points lead, but was satisfied with second place on Saturday.

“I wouldn’t say that I gave up the win after qualifying (fourth) but around Brands it is hard to overtake. There wasn’t going to be much chances of moves unless someone made a mistake, we made a good start and got to second on old tyres while the Carlin boys were on new ones.

“I’ll take another podium and extending the championship lead.”

Double R’s Linus Lundqvist may have a 120-point lead in the British F3 series, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be settling for anything less than a victory,

A good weekend in Spa that saw the 19-year-old take his first double-victory of the season has seen the Swede’s lead extend to more than a weekend’s total.

But that doesn’t mean Lundqvist is taking it easy despite his big lead.

“From a championship point of view, it is about staying out of trouble and getting on the podium but I go racing to win. I do this because I love winning and I love racing, around this circuit you need to qualify well and if we get up there we’ll see what we can do.”

That approach does not mean that Lundqvist isn’t thinking about his potential championship success.

“I’m not going to be one of those drivers that lie and says that he’s not thinking about the Championship because obviously you do and it’s looking very good right now.

“It’s motorsport though, and looking back last year here there was a treble-DNF in F4 for me so if we have one of those weekends the gap will shrink very quickly. I’m taking nothing for granted, but all of this proves that we’re doing it right. I’m enjoying it.”

Lundqvist’s cause has been helped by Nicolai Kjaergaard’s sudden loss of form. The Dane was level on points with Lundqvist at Snetterton, but a run of only one podium from six races has seen him drop well.

“I should not take pleasure from other people’s misfortune,” said Lundqvist when asked about his consistency relative to his rivals.

“I was happy with the way I produced the result. It was the first double win of the season so I felt great, to do it at Spa as well is amazing because it’s a legendary track and I had a lot of sponsors and friends there so it was very nice to produce those results in front of them.”

Lundqvist was coy when asked about his plans for next season, although he is likely to move up to international racing.

“Nothing is decided for next year, it is no secret that you need a good budget. My first aim is to do well in this series and hopefully win the championship and we’ll see what my sponsors think and whether they’ll come along for next year. We know what we want to do.”

 

IMAGE: Jakob Ebrey, via BritishF3.com http://www.britishf3.com/british-f3-news/bh-gp-practice-report-2018/

Lanan’s Kush Maini insists that he remains focused after conceding that winning the British F3 championship is unlikely.

Maini trails leader Linus Lundqvist by over 140 points with nine rounds left, starting at the Brands Hatch GP circuit, but says that the motivation is still there.

“You always want to go out and do your best. Nicolai (Kjaergaard, second in the standings) also had a bad weekend at Spa and he’s in range.

“So after all the bad luck to be in that position I am pretty happy. I just have to keep pushing and we’ll try and get him.”

This is the first tie that the 17-year-old Indian has ever been on the Grand Prix circuit, but he isn’t fazed by his lack of track experience.

“Even the Indy Circuit is not a straightforward track, and this is my first time on the GP circuit and I’m sure that will not be easy either. It’s the same for all of us that haven’t been here though. You just need to go in and get a rhythm and debrief afterwards to see what we can change.

“I spend a lot of time at iZone simulators, so I know roughly where to go and what lines to take. Every time you jump in for real it is always a little different, you have a lot more different factors to think of so I’m confident.”

Maini was non-committal on his plans for the future but hinted at moving up the Junior Formulae ladder.

“We’ll wait and see how we finish this season before deciding whether or not to move up to a bigger car.”

Maini’s brother Arjun was at the centre of the Santino Ferrucci controversy at last month’s British Grand Prix, when the American drove into the back of his Trident F2 teammate on the cooldown lap.

Kush feels that Ferrucci’s emotions got the better of him at Silverstone

“I think something was going on in his mind, maybe he was frustrated as Arjun was quicker. I can’t say too much but it was all a little unnecessary.”

Tom Gamble wants more consistency for the remainder of the season after a Super Sunday for the Nottinghamshire teenager.

Gamble was third early on Sunday before winning from the first corner of the evening race after an engine change Saturday night when an issue was discovered.

Since his maiden pole and win on the Saturday at Rockingham six weeks ago, it’s been difficult for the 16-year-old with disqualifications and collisions since then.

“I can’t thank Fortec enough for deciding to change the engine and it was the right call. I’m delighted to be back on the top step because since Rockingham it has felt like ages.

“A podium today was great earlier, last race I made a good start and got him at the first corner and it was a case of being consistent and building a gap.”

Gamble is a comfortable fourth in the championship and is looking up rather than down the standings after improvements this weekend.

“There’s no pressure, I’d like to make the top three in standings and I think it’s definitely possible as long as we stay consistent because Snetterton and the second half of Rockingham was a nightmare. We want to get as many wins as we can.”

And he isn’t fazed about the prospect of racing at Spa-Francorchamps in six weeks’ time despite having never done so before.

“A few of the competitors around me have been to Spa before but we all do the two-day test there earlier in the year so I know where I’m going. If we had not have changed the engine then it would have been a lot harder.”

Image: Spacesuit Media