Ricciardo & Chilton claim final F3 wins
Race 1
Newly crowned Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Champion Daniel Ricciardo demonstrated exactly why he's the crown-wearer with a virtuoso display in round 19 of the championship. The 20-year-old Australian led all the way from pole position, lowered the lap record twice, and claimed the biggest victory margin of the season on his way to his seventh win.
Daniel and his Red Bull-backed Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Volkswagen extended their lead over pursuing team-mate Max Chilton on every lap bar one – when he encountered lapped traffic – and romped home more than 15 seconds clear.
Ricciardo, who was boosted pre-race by a visit from the last Australian to wear the British F3 crown, David Brabham, said: "From the start I just got away and focused on my job and didn't have to worry once about what was going on behind me. Carlin prepared an amazing car which was suited just perfectly to the conditions, which made my job quite easy. David Brabham wished me all the best and congratulated me on the title win; it's great to see him here supporting us young kids."
Chilton, unfazed by smoke billowing from his blazing brake pads at the end of the warming-up lap, made a good start from the front row to slot into second at the lights but had no chance of catching Ricciardo. "I was struggling under braking the whole race," said Max, "so second is a good result."
On a track notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities, fortune favored the brave and accurate on the opening lap. Riki Christodoulou (Fortec) and Marcus Ericsson (Raikkonen Robertson) made good starts and held station, third and fourth, all the way to the end, with Hitech's Walter Grubmuller making up a couple of places away from the line to net himself fifth.
Carlos Huertas held sixth throughout, ahead of Henry Arundel all the way to the flag. Wayne Boyd made the best of a dramatic opening lap, making up three places but suffering front wing damage in the process which led to T-Sport calling him into the pits for repairs. Wayne's team-mate, Adriano Buzaid, profited from Boyd's pit stop, inheriting eighth.
National Class Champion Daniel McKenzie made up an astonishing six places thanks to a lightning start and aggressive opening lap, the Fortec driver winning his class easily and collecting ninth overall, ahead of Hywel Lloyd.
Race 2
Max Chilton brought his British F3 career to an impressive conclusion, leading the championship's final round from start to finish to claim the Carlin team's ninth victory of the season.
Chilton, who earlier clinched the Mirror.co.uk Challenge Cup as the championship's leading British driver, did not put a wheel wrong as he took advantage of a rare start line error from newly crowned champion Ricciardo to blast into an early lead.
Chilton survived a safety car period, brought about by a crash involving the car of Max Snegirev, nailed the restart and romped home to win from Riki Christodoulou by a one-second margin.
"That meant a lot for me," said Max, "because my win in Portugal wasn't an outright victory and didn't make the headlines. This will, and that's a big relief. I loved every minute of it. It was a pretty standard F3 race around here: try to make places up at the start and, once I had done that, I knew it would be hard for anyone to pass me. The safety car was a bit of a worry but I managed to pull out a good lead after that as well." Max was additionally awarded the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend award.
Marcus Ericsson also got by pole-sitter Ricciardo at the start and slotted into third, which position he held to the checkered flag, with the new champion recovering from his start line wobble to claim fourth. "A bit disappointing," said Ricciardo. "The start was a problem. As soon as I released the clutch the wheels just started spinning and I think because there's a bit of a slope on the grid I couldn't really get out of it, so I went from first to fourth. But it's been a great year, a great weekend for the team and it's great to see Max get his win."
Henry Arundel finished fifth on the road but was later docked 20 seconds for a start infringement, which moved Walter Grubmuller up a place. The Austrian netted enough points from the weekend to displace his absent Hitech team-mate, Renger van der Zande, from the championship runner-up position.
Daisuke Nakajima claimed sixth ahead of Wayne Boyd, the Ulsterman beating his team-mate Adriano Buzaid to seventh, with Carlos Huertas in ninth ahead of Victor Garcia, National Class winner Gabriel Dias and the final point-scorer, Jay Bridger. Arundel ended up 14th.
Round 19 provisional result, Brands Hatch 20/9/2009
22 laps / 50.62 miles
1 INT Daniel Ricciardo/AUS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 28m 47.041s
2 INT Max Chilton/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +15.531s
3 INT Riki Christodoulou/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +16.135s
4 INV Marcus Ericsson/SWE, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +17.890s
5 INT Walter Grubmuller/AUT, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, +28.861s
6 INT Carlos Huertas/COL, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +30.246s
7 INT Henry Arundel/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +30.542s
8 INT Adriano Buzaid/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, +36.912s
9 NAT Daniel McKenzie/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda, +55.307s
10 INT Hywel Lloyd/GBR, CF Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda, +57.945s
11 NAT Gabriel Dias/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda, +58.588s
12 INT Victor Garcia/ESP, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +1m 01.708s
13 INT Jay Bridger/GBR, Litespeed Mygale-Mugen Honda, +1m 05.608s
14 NAT Joe Ghanem/LEB, Carlin Dallara-Mugen Honda, 21 laps
15 INT Wayne Boyd/GBR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, 21 laps
16 CHN Ma Qinghua/FRA, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 20 laps
NOT CLASSIFIED
NAT Victor Correa/BRA, Litespeed-Mugen Honda, 14 laps
INT Philip Major/CDN, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 3 laps
NAT Max Snegirev/RUS, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 1 lap
INT Daisuke Nakajima/JPN, RR Dallara-Mercedes, 0 laps
FASTEST LAPS
INT Ricciardo 1m 17.793s / 106.47mph REC
NAT McKenzie 1m 19.892s / 103.67mph
Round 20 provisional result, Brands Hatch 20/9/2009
21 laps / 48.32 miles
1 INT Max Chilton/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 31m 16.848s / 92.67mph
2 INT Riki Christodoulou/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +0.967s
3 INV Marcus Ericsson/SWE, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +2.552s
4 INT Daniel Ricciardo/AUS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +3.576s
5 INT Walter Grubmuller/AUT, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, +15.303s
6 INT Daisuke Nakajima/JPN, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +15.794s
7 INT Wayne Boyd/GBR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, +16.462s
8 INT Adriano Buzaid/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, +21.750s
9 INT Carlos Huertas/COL, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +22.003s
10 INT Victor Garcia/ESP, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +22.522s
11 NAT Gabriel Dias/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda, +30.613s
12 INT Jay Bridger/GBR, Litespeed Mygale-Mugen Honda, +31.073s
13 INT Philip Major/CDN, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +31.642s
14 INT Henry Arundel/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +34.887s
15 NAT Daniel McKenzie/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda, +41.465s
16 NAT Joe Ghanem/LEB, Carlin Dallara-Mugen Honda, +59.614s
17 NAT Victor Correa/BRA, Litespeed-Mugen Honda, +1m 02.655s
NOT CLASSIFIED
NAT Max Snegirev/RUS, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 4 laps
INT Hywel Lloyd/GBR, CF Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda, 0 laps
CHN Ma Qinghua/FRA, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, 0 laps
FASTEST LAPS
INT Chilton 1m 18.253s / 105.85mph
NAT Dias 1m 20.419s / 102.99mph
PROVISIONAL FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
INT 1 Ricciardo 275 points; 2 Grubmuller 186; 3 Renger van der Zande 178; 4 Chilton 171; 5 Christodoulou 130; 6 Buzaid 109; =7 Huertas & Nakajima 95; 9 Arundel 90; 10 Nick Tandy 68 etc. NAT 1 McKenzie 351; 2 Dias 295; 3 Correa 184; 4 Snegirev 108 etc.