Van der Zande takes Silverstone win

Motorsport News

We offer creative digital solutions for website, software, video, app and brand development.

Specialists in delivering digital projects for clients all around the world for over 30 years. We love car stuff but do non-automotive too...so get in touch if you think we can help +44 (0)1252 961775

See Our Work

August 17, 2009 in Motorsport

Van der Zande takes Silverstone win

Renger van der Zande claimed a brilliant third win of his 2009 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series campaign yesterday afternoon at Silverstone, the Hitech driver wresting the lead of the race from the clutches of pole-sitter and first-time leader Daisuke Nakajima at mid-distance and romping to an 11-second victory. Championship leader Daniel Ricciardo placed third to enhance his points advantage.

Nakajima made a copybook start from his maiden British F3 pole in his Raikkonen Robertson Racing machine, pursued by Carlin's Max Chilton and Hitech team-mates van der Zande and Walter Grubmuller, with Ricciardo slotting into fifth on the opening lap.

Lap eight was decisive to the outcome of the race, van der Zande popping past Chilton for second and Ricciardo catching out Grubmuller to relieve his chief title rival of fourth place. Next lap van der Zande barged past Nakajima around the outside at Abbey to lift the lead and run away with the race.

"The start was not that great for me," said Renger. "But I managed to get close while Max and Daisuke were fighting, then I passed Max around the outside at Luffield, and then a lap later I managed to go around the outside of Nakajima also. There was a bit of wheel-banging on the straight after. At the end I pushed to increase by lead to 11 seconds, and I'm very happy with that."

Chilton fancied his chances of following van der Zande's example in passing Nakajima, and made a move at Becketts on the 11th lap; alas their cars touched and Max not only failed to relieve him of second but also spun back to ninth.

That handed third to Ricciardo. "My start wasn't that good," said Daniel, "and Walter managed to jump me and I fell back to fifth. After a few laps I managed to get by Walter when he made a mistake, and then within a lap or two I was on the back of the leading guys, who were fighting quite aggressively. It was fun to watch them and I really wanted to be a part of the battle but always at the back of my mind was the championship..."

Grubmuller had no answer to Ricciardo in the closing stages and had to settle for fourth, and watch Daniel increase his championship advantage to 45 points.

Nakajima's team-mate Carlos Huertas took fifth ahead of Riki Christodoulou and Chilton, who recovered from his off to twice pass Wayne Boyd to secure seventh. Henry Arundel and Victor Garcia rounded out the top 10.

National Class points leader Daniel McKenzie got tangled up with others' problems on the opening lap and lost a lot of time to T-Sport's Gabriel Dias. Daniel recovered to pass Litespeed's Victor Correa for second in class but could not catch Dias, who said: "The race was good for me. All I can keep doing is to try to take as many wins and fastest laps as I can." McKenzie's championship lead is now 53 points with four races remaining.

Round 16 provisional result, Silverstone 15/8/2009

23 laps / 51.73 miles

1 INT Renger van der Zande/NED, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, 29m 39.462s / 104.64mph

2 INT Daisuke Nakajima/JPN, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +11.197s 3 INT Daniel Ricciardo/AUS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +12.432s

4 INT Walter Grubmüller/AUT, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, +12.724s

5 INT Carlos Huertas/COL, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +17.878s

6 INT Riki Christodoulou/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +18.300s

7 INT Max Chilton/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +18.808s

8 INT Wayne Boyd/GBR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, +20.560s

9 INT Henry Arundel/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +21.298s

10 INT Victor Garcia/ESP, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +21.379s

11 INT Hywel Lloyd/GBR, CF Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda, +21.955s