Double R Racings Geoff Uhrhane achieved a well deserved top 12 finish in the RTL GP Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort in The Netherlands this afternoon, Sunday, 15th July, after a competitive drive from the eighth row of the grid in Europes prestigious standalone blue riband F3 event.
The Australian 21-year-old, who is midway through his maiden season of Formula 3 racing, made an excellent getaway at the beginning of the race to leap into the top 12, from 15th on the grid, where he remained to the flag on lap 25.
Despite coming under pressure from F3 Euroseries runner Andrea Roda during the early stages, British F3 regular Uhrhane responded and from lap six onward began to pull clear with some competitive and strongly consistent lap times at the wheel of his Mercedes-powered Dallara F312.
Geoff did a great job today, he had a good start and ran some competitive times so were really happy with the performance he showed, said team principal Anthony Boyo Hieatt, Hes definitely starting to make some strong progress as he gets to grips more and more with the F3 car so were looking forward to the resumption of the British championship now in a couple of weeks.
Formula 3 debutant Conor Daly, who agreed an eleventh hour deal with the Woking team to contest this weekends event during a natural break in the GP3 Series calendar, qualified as the best of the Double R drivers in 14th position but unfortunately stalled at the beginning of the race.
Slipping down the order to 17th place, the American 20-year-old piled on the pressure to local racer Dennis van der Laar early on and continued to hassle the Dutchman after the pair moved into 15th and 16th respectively on lap two at the expense of the lead Invitational Class car.
Running nose to tail, on lap seven van der Laar managed to squeeze past F3 Euroseries driver Luis Sa Silva who then became Dalys target. Try as he might, Daly couldnt quite unlock a clear-cut passing opportunity and frustratingly lost significant chunks of time bottled up behind the Angolan driver.
The Double R racer did manage to get past Sa Silva four laps from the finish to break into the top 15 and immediately confirmed what might have been by reeling off his best laps of the race as soon as he was in clear air.
It was a shame Conor stalled, these F3 cars are quite tricky to get used to though, but that meant he was stuck behind [Luis] Sa Silva for most of the race, said Hieatt, If hed have been able to get away with the pack at the start he had the pace for a strong result. Its been a pleasure working with Conor at Zandvoort this weekend, all at Double R wish him well for the rest of the year in GP3.
While conditions for todays Masters of F3 race remained dry, horrendous wet weather played havoc with the start of the weekend but Daly adapted superbly to the Formula 3 chassis in tough conditions to impress with the eighth fastest time in the opening practice on Friday, 13th July. He then shaded Uhrhane by 0.3 seconds in the dry second run.
Qualification day on Saturday, 14th July, began as a complete washout and the two scheduled track sessions were actually delayed due to the severity of the torrential rain. When the first qualifying run did take place, Daly was the quicker of the team-mates in the wet and he managed to replicate that in the all-important dry second session as well.
While Daly now returns to his commitments in the GP3 Series, Uhrhane will prepare for the seventh event of the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Friday, 27th July, and Saturday, 28th July, where he will be rejoined at Double R by Malaysias Fahmi Ilyas and Australian National Class runner Duvashen Padayachee.
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