Hitech strikes back with wins for Vips and Pulcini
Prema Racing won the first four races of the FIA Formula 3 season, with Silverstone-based Hitech
Grand Prix toppling the mighty squad with Juri Vips’ win last time out in Austria.
Even after that, questions remained over Hitech’s qualifying form, but those were answered when Vips delivered pole at the team’s local race in Northamptonshire this weekend.
Qualifying is the most important element of the weekend in the new series. FIA Formula 3 was created for this year when the sport’s governing body merged European Formula 3 and GP3 into a one-make formula. Just 1.7 seconds separated the top 28 and 0.559s the top 10, making qualifying so vital.
Estonian Vips has catapulted into relevance with his performances, no doubt impressing his employer Red Bull along the way and jumping into the ‘one-to-watch/should be in F1 soon’ category.
His win came with the most intense pressure, Prema’s Jehan Daruvala ducking and diving at every opportunity in a bid to usurp him.
A late safety car gave Vips a chance to scarper away, and he timed the restart perfectly for a textbook drive to a second consecutive race-one win that has brought him within
22 points of series leader Robert Shwartzman of Prema with four rounds remaining.
Vips was barged off the track on the first lap of the Sunday race by the third Prema car of Marcus Armstrong, but luckily Leo Pulcini – who had taken fourth the day before behind Vips, Daruvala and Armstrong – felt racey. He quickly passed Nelson Piquet’s grandson Pedro and set about chasing one of the stars of the race. Liam Lawson is the youngest driver F3 and races for the MP Motorsport outfit which has struggled, but he defended brilliantly.
However, the vastly experienced Pulcini took the lead at the half-way point and never looked back, ending his woeful start to a year he was the pre-season favourite to dominate. Lawson fell to third behind Shwartzman, who made the most of pointless results for Daruvala and Vips to go 12 points clear at the top of the order.
Shwartzman – backed by Ferrari and SMP Racing, with Vitaly Petrov as his driver coach – has been the most impressive of the Prema drivers and is yet to finish outside the top five, the only driver to do so.
Results
Race 1 (20 laps): 1 Juri Vips (EST) (Hitech GP) 41m12.477s; 2 Jehan Daruvala (IND) (Prema Racing) +0.811s; 3 Marcus Armstrong (NZL) (Prema Racing); 4 Leonardo Pulcini (ITA) (Hitech GP); 5 Robert Shwartzman (RUS) (Prema Racing); 6 Pedro Piquet (BRA) (Trident); 7 Christian Lundgaard (DNK) (ART Grand Prix); 8 Liam Lawson (NZL) (MP Motorsport); 9 Jake Hughes (GBR) (HWA); 10 Alex Peroni (AUS) (Campos Racing); 11 David Beckmann (DEU) (ART Grand Prix); 12 Yifei Ye (CHN) (Hitech GP); 13 Felipe Drugovich (BRA) (Carlin); 14 Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) (Jenzer Motorsport); 15 Lirim Zendeli (DEU) (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz); 16 Fabio Scherer (CHE) (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz); 17 Richard Verschoor (NLD) (MP Motorsport); 18 Niko Kari (FIN) (Trident);
19 Max Fewtrell (GBR) (ART Grand Prix); 20 Sebastian Fernandez (VEN) (Campos Racing); 21 Keyvan Andres (DEU) (HWA); 22 Bent Viscaal (NLD) (HWA); 23 Andreas Estner (DEU) (Jenzer Motorsport); 24 Simo Laaksonen (FIN)
(MP Motorsport); 25 Teppei Natori (JPN) (Carlin); 26 Logan Sargeant (USA) (Carlin); 27 Devlin Defrancesco (CAN) (Trident); R Raoul Hyman (GBR) (Sauber Junior
Team by Charouz); R Federico Malvestiti (ITA) (Jenzer Motorsport); R Alessio Deledda (ITA) (Campos Racing).
Pole: Vips 1m43.902s. Winner’s average speed: 106.474mph. Fastest lap: Sargeant 1m45.692s (124.681mph). Race 2 (20 laps): 1 Pulcini 35m57.713s; 2 Shwartzman +2.692s; 3 Lawson; 4 Armstrong; 5 Lundgaard; 6 Beckmann; 7 Tsunoda; 8 Scherer;
9 Zendeli; 10 Drugovich; 11 Ye; 12 Fewtrell; 13 Sargeant; 14 Fernandez; 15 Vips; 16 Natori; 17 Defrancesco;
18 Hyman; 19 Kari; 20 Viscaal; 21 Verschoor; 22 Estner; 23 Malvestiti; 24 Laaksonen; 25 Deledda; 26 Andres; 27 Piquet; 28 Daruvala; R Hughes; R Peroni. Pole: Lawson. Winner’s average speed: 122.006mph. Fastest lap: Shwartzman 1m46.203s (124.081mph).
Points: 1 Shwartzman 114; 2 Daruvala 102; 3 Vips 92; 4 Armstrong 77; 5 Piquet 43; 6 Fewtrell 37; 7 Lundgaard 36; 8 Pulcini 35; 9 Hughes 31; 10 Lawson 22.