Carlin’s Harry Tincknell took his fourth British Formula 3 victory of the season in a safety car affected race at Donington Park today.
Brazilian pairing Pipo Derani and Pietro Fantin rounded out the podium for Fortec and Carlin respectively, with title challenger Felix Serralles taking 4th.
Tincknell got off the line unchallenged, as the chasing few danced for positions; however as the pack filtered into their respective positions, Alex Lynn picked up a puncture, causing the Essex man to slide hard into championship leader Jazeman Jaafar in the old hairpin.
A disappointed Jaafar recalled:
“I had a good run on the exit, so I took him [Lynn] downhill going into Old Hairpin. I was going into the corner and the next thing I know, I had been hit in the rear right. It’s impossible to overtake there, but I was told Lynn had a puncture.
”My understanding is that if you have a puncture, you should move aside or slow down, but I guess he didn’t know – it’s an unavoidable mistake.”
Lynn regretted the incident, but assured the stewards there was little he could have done to save the spin.
“I got a left rear puncture going through turn one when I made contact with [Jaafar] and there was just nothing I could do. When you haven’t got any air in it, it doesn’t stop and then as soon as I turn in, the rear is going to load, because there’s no air in it. It’s not going to grip, so I went straight around and spun into him.
“From the contact, I don’t know [if there’s damage] – the boys are going to check it. I him left front, so there probably will be a few broken wishbones, but hopefully nothing too bad.”
When the safety car pulled in, Tincknell skipped into an unassailable lead from the Derani / Fantin battle – indeed, Tincknell’s starts are something the 20-year-old stores a great deal of pride in.
“Both of my starts were good. I was able to get a lot of heat into my tyres behind the safety car and I think the starts off the line have been one of my strong points throughout my career.
“I struggled a bit this weekend; we worked really, really hard to get to the bottom of the issues we had and then the pace was good – it shows hard work pays off.”
Meanwhile, Derani held Tincknell in his sights, although the Fortec man could not launch touch Tincknell through Donington’s key twisty sections. For Derani, his disappointment was clear, despite his runner-up placing.
“Compared to Tincknell, we were struggling a little bit in high-speed corners. I think he had more downforce, because he was faster in the corners, but I could catch him a little bit on the straights.”
Fantin’s challenge dropped away somewhat as the race aged and a persistent understeer bled its way into his Carlin machine. The battle he enjoyed with Derani yesterday never surfaced today; however it did not stop the Brazilian from securing the fastest lap three tours from the end.
“It was good. There was some understeer, but the car was really good and the pace was there – that’s how I did the fastest lap.”
The Brazilian initially dropped behind Serralles in the opening turn, although Fantin was able to grab the position back just after the halfway point, when Serralles got a wheel on the grass exiting Old Hairpin.
Fantin pulled alongside Serralles exiting Coppice, with the pair ever so briefly glancing wheels, before finally making sure of the pass. The Carlin racer noted the incident with a smile:
“Fortunately for me, Serralles made a mistake in turn four, which allowed to retake the position that I lost at the start. We almost touched wheels, but that’s racing – if you are going to touch wheel, then you will touch wheels.”
Despite losing out to Fantin, 4th still represented a positive result for Serralles. The Puerto Rican concentrated on trying to secure the fastest lap once in clear air and was on course to doing so on the final lap, only to lose out in the final sector behind the dirty air of Fantin’s Dallara chassis.
Hannes van Asseldonk assumed 5th ahead of Jack Harvey, although the pair ran virtually nose to tail for the duration, Harvey was unable to force the issue.
It propels Harvey to the top of the points table with only one race remaining. The Englishman now leads Serralles by three points with Jaafar now 3rd overall a further two points adrift of the top spot.
Rupert Svendsen-Cook drove a sensible race to 7th in a car that he admitted was “difficult at times”. The F3 returnee headed Nick McBride and Geoff Uhrhane home as the trailed behind the headline battle.
Hywel Lloyd took his second National Class win of the season. The Welshman held off National Class Champion Spike Goddard for the duration, while Pedro Pablo Calbimonte and Duvashen Padayachee followed in the distance.
2012 British F3 Round of Donington (Rd 10, Race 2, 13 laps)
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 20m12.362s
2. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc + 1.718s
3. Pietro Fantin Carlin Dallara-VW + 3.344s
4. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc + 4.064s
5. Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Dallara-Merc + 5.786s
6. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 6.852s
7. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Double R Dallara-Merc + 9.248s
8. Nick McBride T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 11.218s
9. Geoff Uhrhane Double R Dallara-Mer + 11.624s
10. Hywel Lloyd CF Dallara-Mugen + 18.504s
11. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 18.928s
12. Pedro Pablo Calbimonte T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 23.582s
13. Duvashen Padayachee Double R Dallara-Mugen + 32.346s
Retirements:
Alex Lynn Fortec Dallara-Merc 0 laps
Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 0 laps
2012 British F3 Round of Donington (Rd 10, Race 2) International Class Pos Driver Points 1. Jack Harvey 299 2. Felix Serralles 296 3. Jazeman Jaafar 294 4. Alex Lynn 237 5. Carlos Sainz Jr 224 6. Harry Tincknell 216 7. Pietro Fantin 189 8. Pipo Derani 138 9. Hannes van Asseldonk 128 10. Nick McBride 84 National Class Pos Driver Points 1. Spike Goddard 416 2. Duvashen Padayachee 365 3. Adderly Fong 161 4. Pedro Pablo Calbimonte 109 5. Hywel Lloyd 41
