Formula One aspirant Felipe Nasr secured his sixth podium from seven race starts at the new Snetterton 300 Circuit yesterday afternoon (14 May) to markedly increase his Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series lead to almost 50 points.
The Brazilian 18-year-old, who utterly dominated qualifying at the East Anglian track, finished a fighting second during today's seventh round of the 2011 season and in doing so also posted a brand new outright lap record for the 2.97-mile track of 1m40.103 seconds (106.77mph).
Felipe laid down an impressive early marker during pre-event testing on Friday (13 May). In session one he was the only driver of the 20-strong field to lap under the magical 100 second barrier at the newly configured track, 0.3 seconds quicker than his closest challenger, while in session two he improved by a couple of 10ths of a second to remain 0.3 seconds clear at the top of the times.
In qualifying he was in total command again at the wheel of his Dallara-Volkswagen, posting an unmatchable best of 1m39.147 seconds (107.80mph) - over 0.3 seconds clear of the rest.
Gaining him pole position for Sunday afternoon's 'feature race', his terrific consistency also secured pole for Saturday's encounter by virtue of his second fastest lap of the session. At the beginning of this afternoon's race, the South American sensation made a superb getaway and by lap three he had built a lead of 1.6 seconds.
With the threat of rain in the air Felipe pressed on at the front and, driving beautifully, moved almost two seconds clear of the chasing pack by lap eight. The complexion of the race changed though soon after when the Safety Car was deployed to enable recovery of a stricken car - eroding Felipe's healthy and unchallenged lead. When racing resumed on lap 12, the Carlin driver didn't do anything wrong but team-mate Kevin Magnussen was able to get the benefit from a very good tow in the slipstream to slingshot past into the first corner.
Remaining close behind the Dane for the remainder of the race, Felipe fought hard to try and reclaim the lead and underlined his intent with several fastest laps - including the new lap record on the penultimate tour. In the end, he had to settle for second place just 0.6 seconds shy of the win.
"We had a fantastic car today, we were very quick - much quicker than anyone else", said Felipe, "I had a very good start, a good gap at the front and I was just controlling the race. I had the win in my hands, it's just a shame we had the Safety Car. The wind was very strong and so at the re-start the guys behind were able to benefit from a really good tow - there was nothing I could do. "This result is very important though for the championship, the others I'm fighting with were back down the order a little bit so we're looking very good. I'm sure we can have a win this weekend, tomorrow is another day so we'll see what we can do."
Round eight of the 2011 Cooper Tires British F3 International Series will take place at 10.55, Sunday, 15th May, with round nine following at 16.15.
