Round 13 – Silverstone
Weather: Cloudy Track: Wet
Conway Extends Championship Lead in the Wet at Silverstone
Mike Conway (GBR) in his Raikkonen Robertson Racing Dallara Mercedes took his 6th win of the season here at Silverstone this afternoon, in wet but drying conditions, to extend his Championship lead on team mate Bruno Senna by a further 5 points to a dominating 52 point lead.
From second on the grid Conway didn’t enjoy the best of starts and slipped to 3rd spot as the pack entered Copse for the first time in a mist of spray to tackle the 3.2mile world-famous Silverstone GP circuit. By Stowe, Conway was slipping inside Oliver Jarvis (GBR) to take second with a heroic overtaking move on Senna at Club to take the lead whilst much of the grid fought the tricky conditions with a number taking to the grass, notably Maro Engel who completed a full 360 degree spin in the middle of the pack whilst negotiating the Maggotts and Becketts curves.
In front of yesterdays heroes of both F3 and F1, today’s British F3 rounds are held as part of the new GP Masters series with stars such as Nigel Mansell, who took his only British F3 win here at Silverstone in 1979, and Emerson Fittipaldi watching the next generation of F1 drivers fight for podium positions.
Pole position man and hot favourite, Bruno Senna drove a strong race to hold on to second position but was losing ground on Conway in the early stages as the Britain set some storming laps to secure a demanding early lead with a 5.4 second lead by lap 6. Senna then found grip and balance and set out to catch Conway reducing the gap by over a second per lap despite rain starting to fall again on the Northamptonshire circuit.
Meanwhile, from 5th on the grid Stephen Jelly (GBR), in the third of the Raikkonen Robertson Racing Dallara Mercedes, was moving up the pack to take 3rd position on lap 5 whilst Alexander Khateeb (LIB) went out of the race at Abbey corner.
By lap 8 Senna had set the fastest lap in wet conditions of 2:02.531min and had reduced the gap on Conway to 3.5 seconds then on lap 9 the safety car was deployed to manage a number of trackside incidents and as a result, bringing the pack closer together again.
Jelly lost his advantage on lap 9 with an off at Luffield but rejoined the track to finally finish in 7th position overall.
The safety car came in at the end of lap 11 with Yelmer Buurman (NED) in his Fortec Dallara Mercedes taking advantage of the opportunity to sneak inside Oliver Jarvis (GBR) to take 3rd position, from 11th on the grid, which he held until the end of the thirty minute, 14 lap race.
In the National Class Rodolfo Gonzalez (VEN) in his T-Sport Dallara Mugen-Honda was in a strong position for first place but an incident took him out on the last lap opening the door for Mario Moraes with the Brazilian thoroughly enjoying taking his invitation drive to win the Class but accepting that he gains no points under the invitation system and congratulating Cristiano Morgado (RSA) in his Fluid Motorsport Lola-Dome Mugen-Honda who takes full points in Class narrowing the gap on Class leader Gonzalez.
Speaking on the podium after taking another winners trophy, Mike Conway said: “Yes, that was a great race. I got a little bit of a bad start but managed to hold a steady line down to Stowe and take Bruno at Club and move onto a big lead initially and hold it. Then the Safety Car came out and when it went in I got a good re-start and managed to control the lead until the end. It was of course an extra special win today performing in front of such a great paddock of past F3 and F1 drivers in the GP Masters series”.
Bruno Senna added “I was catching Mike and setting fastest lap but after the Safety Car period Mike had a strong lead and I just had to settle for second”
Winner of the National Class Mario Moraes said; “It was good for me, I came here to learn and it’s going to be fine. Maybe I come back next year in the Championship Class”
