Fulvio clinches championship with a faultless drive.
Fulvio Fenix (Red Bull Campos RSS) wrapped up the Q2 F3 Championship with one round to go with a flawless performance at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Thursday.
With this round being a sprint format with two 25 minute races, Fulvio took pole, led every lap in race 1, most of the laps in the reverse grid race 2,and got the fastest laps in both to top off a great evening’s racing.
Fulvio took pole by 0.36 seconds from Hank Belane with last round winner Laurent Londes putting his Rodin Carlin RSS on the second row.
Race 1
Fulvio got a good launch and lead into T1 followed by Hank, Laurent, Allard Van den Hoeven and Thomas Kimmich.
Despite warning drivers of the dangers of T1, race director Paul Fairweather managed to tap Steve Hayward into a half spin which cause a domino effect behind for Andre Murel, Omar Fillipini and Gary Slevin. Han Fazzi started from the pits after reporting a technical issue with his transmission which his team worked quickly on to resolve, but this allowed Han to avoid the T1 chaos as he exited the pit lane.
By the start of lap 2 Fulvio had opened up a gap over Hank, Allard had moved past Laurent with the top five covered by 5.5s. On lap 5, Allard made a move on Hank under braking for T2 and squeezed past. Hank tapped Allard on the exit resulting in Hank spinning out letting Laurent and Thomas through. There was a large gap back to Steve who spent the rest of the race on his own trying to close on Thomas but Han was moving well and already challenging Andre.
Han’s pace was putting pressure on Andre was struggling to find grip and having several sideways moments, lighting up his rear tyres.
Onto lap 7 and back at the front, Fulvio had checked out and was off on his holidays, Laurent was driving smoothly in second place followed by Thomas Hank and Allard.
Lap 8 and Andre went wide at the fast turn 9 right-hander, Han saw an opportunity to pass but Andre closed the door resulting in contact with both cars spinning out on the start straight.
Thomas lost ground when he got a massive slide on entering T1, hitting the sausage kerb and spinning across the track giving up fourth place to a fast improving Allard.
Things were hotting up in the battle for P2 with Hank closing in on Laurent but Hank was also having to keep an eye on his mirrors as Allard was closing in fast. Hank went wide at T4 and Allard didn’t need an invitation to move up to third place and close in on Laurent.
With five minutes to go Allard got a great run out of T1 and dragged up to Laurent under braking for T3 and then made a great move around the outside.
So another impressive win for Fulvio and Q2 championship secured, Allard took P2, 17.4 seconds back with Laurent taking the final podium slot.
Race 2
With the reverse grid for the top seven from race one, it was Han who had pole. His race one transmission issues still seemed to be bugging his car as Han jumped the lights and had to do a drive through. But Han managed to lead for most of lap 1 until he took to the pit lane allowing Thomas to take over the running at the front. Fulvio was already up to third place after his P7 start.
There was some frantic stuff going on with several moments of cars three wide into corners and Steve and Allard having the slightest of touches sending them both into the gravel at T6.
Fulvio went up into P2 after Laurent went wide at T1 and Fulvio was gifted the lead when early leader Thomas went wide on the last corner. Hank and Thomas made contact at T3 when Hank locked his brakes resulting in a spin and Laurent moved up to P3.
Omar was going really well in P5 and was well ahead of Paul and Steve.
With two minutes to go, Allard was recovering and he pulled off the move of the race when he snuck up behind Hank and Thomas at T3 and drove up the inside on the cut back as Hank and Thomas focused on their battle.
Thomas spun out later in the lap exiting T6 trying to get back on terms allowing Laurent through. Allard then had a similar moment when he got a right rear wheel on the kerb between T6 and T7 handing P2 back to Hank.
Further back, Steve was closing in fast on Paul who was struggling on the hard compound and with one lap to go they closed in on Omar as the Alfa driver span out at T1. With one lap to go Steve was all over the back of Paul and it all came down to a drag race as they came off the last turn.
But Paul managed to hang on to take P6 by 0.041 of a second.
So yet another win for Fulvio, Hank did well to recover for second place with the ever present Laurent claiming third. Allard finished fourth after his earlier issues. Omar almost had an incident free race and drove well to take his best result of the season with a very credible P5.
With one more race to go in this quarter, there are still places to fight for throughout the field, but Fulvio can relax as the championship heads for Silverstone and the British GP on Thursday 4th July.
Don’t forget to register for Q3, the details will be posted soon. We have some great tracks coming up including Spa, Monza and the Nurbergring.
Race 1 podium
1. Fulvio Fenix
2. Allard van den Hoeven
3. Laurent Londes
Race 2 podium
1. Fulvio Fenix
2. Hank Belane
3. Laurent Londes
Championship table after 5 rounds.
Pos | Driver | Points |
1 | Fulvio Fenix | 140 |
2 | Laurent Londes | 96 |
3 | Hank Belane | 83 |
4 | Thomas Kimmich | 69 |
5 | Allard van den Hoeven | 68 |
6 | Steve Hayward | 38 |
7 | Paul Fairweather | 35 |
8 | Jason Bagley | 33 |
9 | Han Fazzi | 28 |
10 | Richard Barratt | 25 |
11 | Omar Filippini | 18 |
12 | Jorg Evers | 11 |
13 | Rico Prins | 10 |
14 | Andre Murel | 9 |
15 | Taj Johal | 3 |
16 | Casper de Wit | 0 |
17 | Gary Slevin | 0 |
18 | Paulo Moreno | 0 |
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