Jordan King took the 2013 British Formula 3 Series today thanks to a victory and 5th place at the Nürburgring.
With only one race remaining, the Carlin racer has pulled too far ahead of rivals Antonio Giovinazzi and Will Buller.
Coming into the second race of the day, King only required a top-five placing to taking the tally beyond then-2nd place man Buller; however a calamitous weekend for the latter effectively rendered his chances mute early on.
An engine fire at the beginning of race one and a crash in race two, ensures Buller has now fallen to 3rd in the standings behind Giovinazzi, who claimed 2nd and 6th places in races one and two respectively.
Following his triumph, King declared: “I had a good start, I could see some gaps but they weren’t quite big enough to take a risk; I didn’t want to lose a front wing or doing anything to jeopardise my race. That was a bit frustrating not pushing as hard as I would normally and I wanted to attack but I had to think it through as well.”
King, however, was a little disappointed to have not won the title in a straight fight, but still hopes for great things in tomorrow’s finale, where he starts from pole position.
“Will [Buller] was clearly on a mission (in race two) and wasn’t taking any prisoners and as he started pulling away I knew I had to catch him so the gap wasn’t too big. Then he went off, and that was enough to take the title,” noted the delighted King. He added: “It feels a little bit strange that I didn’t win it on the road in a straight battle, but it still feels fantastic. I can relax now and enjoy race three tomorrow and hopefully get the win from pole.”
It was a good day for Carlin team boss, Trevor Carlin, who had also seen his GP2 Series team achieve a 1-2 in the Feature Race supporting the Singapore Grand Prix.
According to Carlin, “Jordan has done a fantastic job this year. Although this year’s series has been condensed there are still some talented drivers here and Jordan has come in as an F3 rookie and driven maturely from the start and is a very deserving champion. I’m delighted for the team as well who have worked so hard and proved themselves to be unbeatable for the past six seasons in British F3. Thanks also to Volkswagen who had delivered once again a great package to take us to our fifth title together.”
This will be far from the last F3 action for King and Carlin this year. Both return to the track with their Dallara F312’s in one week’s time for the eighth round of the FIA European F3 Championship at Zandvoort.
