Frederick reclaims points lead as Carlin dominates
DONINGTON PARK MSVR 24-25 OCTOBER
Kaylen Frederick stole the initiative in the BRDC British F3 Championship hunt with a dominant double at Donington Park.
The American sealed a brace of wins from pole position, with only team-mate Nazim Azman breaking the trend on a weekend of Carlin dominance, to hand Frederick a 13-point lead over a recovering Kush Maini.
The Indian was almost derailed by the unpredictable weather conditions that forced Saturday’s opener to be delayed to the following day when a deluge arrived. While the majority started on wet-weather tyres, Maini and Hitech team-mate Reece Ushijima were among three to gamble on slicks in drying, greasy conditions.
Although times tumbled, it came too late as the trio were the last three finishers in positions nine to 11. Maini was therefore forced to recover ground in race two, and he kept his title chase on target by charging to an impressive fourth from 13th on the grid, after the 103% rule meant he failed to benefit from the reversal of positions as his race one fastest lap was too slow.
“We had a bad weekend and made the best of it, so roll on Silverstone,” said Maini after the latest twists in a season of mixed fortunes for the title contenders. “The same could happen to them.”
Frederick’s only serious challenger in race one was in-form Douglas Motorsport driver Ulysse de Pauw. “I knew that we are usually strong in these conditions,” said de Pauw. “It was tricky in between wet and slicks, so we’re happy to get through and keep our head down to see where we end up. We had a tough beginning of the season and since Brands Hatch [in late August] we’ve been consistent.”
The Belgian shone in testing and fought his way through from fourth to latch on to the tail of his Carlin rival in the closing laps of the opener, coming up just short by 1.3 seconds. He then added a 10th podium of the season in race two with a daring double overtake at Redgate that delayed Frederick, dropping the new points leader to seventh. Azman continued his theme of making rapid reversed-grid getaways as he shot past Max Marzorati at the start, beating Ben Pedersen for his second win of the season.
A final-race moment on the opening lap left de Pauw also playing catch-up in a costly race for Frederick’s rivals. The American was untouchable up front, consistently lapping quicker than the chasers, while de Pauw climbed to eighth and Maini grabbed his only podium of the weekend, albeit after Oliver Clarke’s unfortunate penultimate-lap retirement with a damaged tyre and rear suspension while in a safe second place. Clarke’s Hillspeed team-mate Sasakorn Chaimongkol grabbed a best finish of the season with second.
The biggest loser of the weekend was Louis Foster. The Double R Racing man was twice the unlucky party in first-corner incidents, and slipped to 67 points adrift, despite salvaging fourth place in the final outing. He remains one of five drivers still mathematically in title contention.
The increasingly heavy rain from midday played havoc with Saturday’s schedule, with the result that all the day’s categories had races shortened or abandoned. The single Radical SR1 Cup event was won convincingly by James Pinkerton, which secured the 2018 champion his second title, while Will Hunt, Ross Elliott, rookie Frazer Mcfadden and Dean Warriner had
fun sorting themselves out into this order. Although the cars were brought to the grid for the second race, they were ushered away again as the track became impossibly wet.
The large Monoposto Tiedeman Trophy contingent fared slightly better in that both their races started over a reduced duration, but then suffered safety car interventions because of the conditions. Dan Clowes won both in his Jedi Mk6, but admitted that he doubted whether his little car could have kept at bay the F3 machinery, with its greater downforce, for much longer.
In the first race, Clowes held off the fast-closing Dallara F304 of Tony Bishop by 0.7 seconds. In race two, his winning margin was 0.8s, this time just ahead of the two-litre Formula Ford Van Diemen RF99 of the impressive Mat Jordan.
Sunday’s three F3 Cup races were shared between Stefano Leaney and Alex Fores, a spin while leading the second encounter depriving Fores of a hat-trick and helping to ensure that Leaney took the title. But most unfortunate of all were the Clubmans Sports Prototype drivers, both of whose races were on Saturday and called off.