On the East German Eurospeedway Frédéric Vervisch scored his third win of the season, although Lady Fortune wasn’t on his side.
During practice, Frédérics speed was good. He was fastest on Friday afternoon and was full of confidence for qualifying. Fred was leading the first timed practice for most of the time, but due to traffic in the final minutes of the session the Belgian driver missed out on his first pole of the season. Also in second qualifying Frédéric started strong. Already in his first lap he set the fastest time, but then something happened noone had counted on. The driveshaft of his Lola B06/30 broke at the moment he wanted to start his second flying lap. Vervischs time was sufficient to start in fourth position on the grid, however he did not complete three laps as stated in the regulations. Vervisch would therefore be starting from the last place on the grid, unless his rivals all agreed that he could start from fourth. Van Amersfoort Racings drivers however, the closest rivals of JB Motorsport, did not accept this.
At the start of the first race, Frédéric passed Vietoris and took the lead. An incident between two slower cars caused the race to be neutralised. But JB’s driver stayed focussed and made a good restart. There were however some small problems with the tyres, as it was difficult to warm them up accordingly. Vietoris put some pressure on Vervisch afterwards, but the Belgian didn’t bow and won the race in front of his teammate Verdonck, who had managed to get past Vietoris. A victory and the fastest lap gave Frédéric eleven valuable points and in the overall standings he closed in on points leader Van Dam
The second race promised to be spectacular from Frédérics point of view, because it was not the first time that the Belgian driver had to start from the back of the grid. On the Nürburgring he showed his combativeness and it was similar on the Eurospeedway. Already from the start, Vervisch launched the attack and gained position after position. Four laps before the end he was fighting with Bruins Choi for fifth place. But then the driveshaft broke again, resulting in Freds first retirement this season.
Frédéric Vervisch: “Our car was fast enough to be on pole twice this weekend. In first qualifying there was too much traffic and then my driveshaft broke in the second run. Of course I’m very happy with my third victory this season, because I gained some precious points for the championship. The retirement in the second race was however frustrating, because we were about to score more points. I won’t let myself be discouraged by this misfortune and we have to keep pushing. In the last four weekends I will give my best. You win or you lose, that’s the game.”
There is not much time for rest. The ATS F3 Cup goes to Assen for the 11th and 12th round of the season this weekend.
