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07 Oktober 2004(ros)
PRESS RELEASE PREMA-Powerteam
Formula 3 Euro Series 2004- Hockenheim round # 10 - Round Up

The Formula 3 Euro Series Championship had its season's finale on the German circuit of Hockenheim last weekend. Drivers and Teams were on track again for the last two races and Prema managed to achieve two important results : the first seasonal podium for Brazilian Roberto Streit and the Rookie Title for Franck Perera. Besides, technical officers granted Prema the award of "best organized Team". An award that compensates for the hard work carried out by each member of the management team. Once again Japanese Kohei Hirate was on track to continue his experience with a Formula 3 vehicle.
On Friday, the free practice session was conditioned by a hazardous track. Heavy rain fell during the previous night and early in the morning and consequently this influenced the hour-and-a-half test. During the session the track started to get dry but ten minutes before the end it began to rain again. The test finished with Roberto Streit , who was soon at ease on the circuit, in the third place overall. Good performances for Franck Perera and Katsuyuki Hiranaka who were ninth and eleventh, respectively. Some difficulties for Kohei Hirate because this was his first experience with a Formula 3 vehicle on a wet track. He was only twenty-second.


In the afternoon, the qualifying sessions confirmed Roberto's competitiveness and he finished in the third position overall. No doubt, it was a positive result for him, but unfortunately he could not reach pole position due to an obvious mistake in the final sector of the track. Some difficulties for Franck Perera who was not able to go beyond the twelfth place. Set-up problems for Hiranaka and Hirate , forced to finish nineteenth and twenty-third respectively.


On Saturday morning, during the qualifying session valid for the afternoon race, the track was wet, therefore, all drivers were forced to use wet weather tyres. The results obtained do not reflect the real potentialities of the Team. Roberto Streit, after having marked the best partial times in the first and third sector of his second lap, went spinning at the exit of the first corner when he had the maximum grip. He finished eleventh. Perera, after his intermediate box-stop, was not able to work at a good pace and finished twentieth. A bit delayed the two Japanese drivers, Hiranaka and Hirate, who were twenty-second and twenty-third , respectively.

Race 1 : outstanding recovery for Franck Perera who after a good start managed to overtake several rivals and finished fifth. With this result he accomplished one of his seasonal objectives : the best Rookie Title. Streit was constantly among the first six, but in a contact with Bruno Spengler he broke the front wing and crossed the finish line in the eleventh place. At the end of the race, the stewards penalized him with thirty seconds for a non-sporting action and so he was thirteenth.
A problem with the engine conditioned Katsuyuki Hiranaka and he finished fourteenth. Nicolas Lapierre won the race.

Race 2 : good start for Roberto Streit who was at the side of Lapierrre, but in order to avoid going out of track he was forced to give way to the French driver from Nevers. He maintained the third position during the whole race, up to the chequered flag. An important result for Roberto in a very difficult and demanding year. Perera, instead, had problems at the start because his engine stopped and he fell back to the last position. From there, he started recovering and finished twelfth, marking the best fourth time of the race.
Fourteenth position for Kohei Hirate. At the start Hiranaka went into a spin because another competitor crashed into his car. He finished the race in the seventeenth position.
In the rookies' rank our drivers Perera and Streit were first and third, respectively. A rewarding result for a very intense season.
Next appointment will be by the middle of November for the Macao Grand Prix, on the city circuit of the ex-Portuguese Protectorate , now part of the Chinese territory.

 




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