2003
British F3 Championship gripped by Avon Tyres, Rounds 19 &
20
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, August 29th/30th/31st
© Lynne Waite & Stella-Maria Thomas
Race
- Round 19:
Weather: Threatening
Now the chips were really down. With 6 races left in this
year's British F3 Championship, and 126 points still up for
grabs, Alan van der Merwe (Carlin Motorsport) arrived in Belgium
with a 64 point lead over his only real rival (and team-mate)
Jamie Green. The only other man who could possibly upset the
applecart was Nelson Piquet Jr (Piquet Sport), and his chance
was mathematical rather than realistic since it required him
to win all of the remaining races and van der Merwe not to
finish in the points. As the South African has scored in all
but one of the previous 18 races that was pretty unlikely
to happen. And as some people realised a couple of years back
when he was a surprise (at least to some) winner of the Formula
Ford Festival, van der Merwe is never more dangerous than
when he senses that something he really wants is in reach.
In addition, in his Formula Ford days, he had already proven
himself as a wet weather expert though there are people who
still choose to overlook the evidence of his ability.
Anyway, that ability was in little doubt once the race started.
Piquet had another of his less than lightning quick starts
from the front row, which allowed van der Merwe to get into
Eau Rouge ahead of him. This time the Brazilian recovered
well though, and by the time they reached les Combes he was
ready to challenge for the lead. Slipstreaming towards the
corner, he passed the South African under braking to go ahead,
while Green was an interested spectator in 3rd. Behind him,
team-mate Ronnie Bremer had snatched a place from Will Power
(Fortec Motorsport), only to lose it again, and then started
to build up his own personal traffic jam. Meanwhile Ryan Briscoe
(Prema Powerteam) was bottled up behind Power and looking
for a way past. His attempts to be the leading Aussie led
to a rather grassy moment at Blanchimont, as the Euro Series
leader briefly lost out to Alvaro Parente (Carlin Motorsport)
while he tried to get things back under control.
In the Scholarship Class, Karun Chandhok appeared to be well
established in the lead (and in 9th place overall), but his
T-Sport teammate Steven Kane was busy trying to give his title
lead away. He failed to get off the line as the lights turned
green and was now trailing around at the back trying to make
up ground. The third title contender, Ernesto Viso (P1 Motorsport)
was charging up the field, elbowing his way past the Championship
Class boys seemingly with impunity, though he was a good 11
places behind Chandhok at this point.
At the end of the long first lap, Piquet still led from van
der Merwe, Green, Power, Bremer, Briscoe and Parente. Eric
Salignon (Hitech Racing) was just ahead of Chandhok, while
Richard Antinucci (Promatecme F3) was 10th. Adam Carroll (Alan
Docking Racing) had managed to get Fairuz Fauzy (Promatecme
F3) between himself and Will Davison (Menu Motorsport), while
Danny Watts (Hitech Racing) went right on wrestling his Dallara
to something of a stand-off. Robert Kubica (Prema Powerteam),
Robert Doornbos (Menu Motorsport), Clivio Piccione and Joao
Paulo de Oliveira (JB Motorsport) were also blocking Viso's
route to Chandhok. Joel Nelson (Alan Docking Racing) was 21st,
ahead of Katsuyuki Hiranaka (Prema Powerteam), Andrew Thompson
(Hitech Racing), Billy Asaro (P1 Motorsport), Justin Sherwood
(Performance Racing), Rizal Ramli (the only surviving Team
SYR runner, Masato Shinoyama having failed to make the start),
the inevitable Tor Graves (Manor Motorsport) and the embarrassed
Kane.
However, it was a long way from over. At the front, van der
Merwe was doing his utmost to get his lead back from Piquet,
and at les Combes, he found a way, pulling a classic move
on the youngster and slingshotting back into the lead. As
Piquet was recovering from the move, Green took a run at him
too and almost made it through.
It was enough for van der Merwe. Now he had clear air in front
of him, he began to edge away, while Green made another attempt
to follow him by passing Piquet. As they came into Blanchimont,
Green, who could see his championship chances slipping away,
leaned on the Brazilian, forcing him wide. It wasn't quite
enough though, and the frustrated Green was still 3rd at the
end of lap 2.
Meanwhile, Briscoe had fallen behind Bremer, who was setting
about Power with great enthusiasm, while Briscoe sat back
and shook his head at the Dane's antics. Another trip across
the grass, possibly because he was too busy staring at what
was happening in front of him, led to Parente getting past
as well when Bremer dropped to 6th. Ryan was not having as
good a time as he might have hoped. Nor was Joel Nelson, who
became the first casualty of the race, falling off and burying
himself deep in the gravel at Piff Paff.
Three laps in and things really started to fall apart. Chandhok
was busy going backwards, while van der Merwe drove away from
his rivals. Green was attacking Piquet wherever he could and
Piccione coasted to a halt with mechanical problems. Graves,
despite being at the back of the pack, managed to spin out
and beach his car on the kerbs, when Ramli overshot the Bus
Stop ahead of him and he had to take avoiding action. The
marshals ran over to attempt to move the stricken Manor car
to a place of safety. In the process they managed to break
the rear wing, which led to a period of standing around wondering
what to do next!
While the marshals pondered the situation, Piquet and Green
were nose-to-tail through the Bus Stop. It was obvious that
Green really wanted the place while Piquet equally clearly
didn't want to give it to him. The battle was finally resolved,
perhaps not unsurprisingly, at les Combes, when Green repeated
the move that van der Merwe had used, and Piquet was left
to fend off Power.
With the clouds getting denser and darker by the minute, van
der Merwe was now being pursued by Green, but the Englishman's
attack was about to fizzle out. The clouds did what Belgian
clouds so often do and started dumping rain on the Ardennes.
With waved yellows all over the place, and the rain getting
heavier, there were few places where anyone could pass, though
this didn't prevent Power having a rush of blood to the head
and barging past Piquet at - you guessed, didn't you - les
Combes. He would be very lucky indeed if he was allowed to
get away with that. Meanwhile the Scholarship lead was now
in Viso's hands, Chandhok having fallen so far back he was
almost in reach of Sherwood. At the front Green was having
a go at van der Merwe when the Safety Car boards were shown,
and every marshals post had yellows being waved. It seemed
that the main aim of the interruption was to allow a snatch
vehicle to remove Graves' car. Whatever the reason, it didn't
signal the end of the mayhem, as Ramli, having been at the
root of the original problem, decided he had to join in with
a proper crash of his own. With the rain getting heavier by
the minute, and a track littered with cars, a number of drivers
took it upon themselves to dive into the pits for a tyre change.
With Kubica, Hiranaka, Doornbos and Franchi all sitting in
the pit lane, the rest of the field sat behind the Safety
Car until the red flags were shown. They were then led to
the grid, where they were left sitting for some while as the
cockpits filled with rain. Needless to say, there was a general
dive for the Clerk of the Course's office and eventually a
decision was made to declare a result at the end of lap 5
(of an 11 lap race), and therefore only half points would
be awarded. Quite why the officials didn't opt to leave the
Safety Car out for another lap, and then show the chequered
flag instead of the red one (in which instance two-thirds
distance would have been completed and they could have awarded
full points) is anyone's guess, but they didn't. And so Alan
van der Merwe took his 8th win of the season, while Piquet
(who was given his third place back) was now out of contention
altogether (there were 105 points still available and he was
106 behind) and Green was beginning to look a lot less threatening
than he had at Thruxton. The sound of the fat lady practising
scales and gargling was almost audible in Belgium.
A stunned Viso came home to win the Scholarship Class from
Chandhok, Sherwood and Kane, though he wasn't too happy when
it turned out the organisers didn't have a copy of the Venezuelan
National Anthem available and that he would have to content
himself with being an Italian for the day!
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