Double R Racings Antonio Giovinazzi, Sean Gelael and Tatiana Calderon continued their education in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with a tough second event of the season at Silverstone over the weekend, 13th/14th AprilGiovinazzi just missing out on the teams first points of the year.

With changeable weather, and several incidents, making for a very unpredictable outing at the Northamptonshire venues 3.66-mile Grand Prix Circuit, Double Rs F3 rookies each faced a major learning curve but all three made significant progress over the course of the race meeting.

Giovinazzis best result of 11th position, the Italians highest placing of the season so far, came during round six on Sunday morning, where team-mate Caldern also delivered her best race of the yearthe Colombian putting in a good drive from 24th on the grid, in slippery conditions, to finish 15th.

Indonesian 16-year-old Gelael, the least experienced and youngest competitor in the field, recorded a best of 16th position in the second of the weekends races, round five on Saturday afternoon, from 20th on the grid.

Qualifying was the first time Antonio, Sean and Tatiana had completed a dry lap at Silverstone, explained team principal Anthony Boyo Hieatt, They had a lot to learn and with every session bringing changing conditions, it was a very challenging weekend. They each stuck to the job well though, kept pushing the limits and got quicker and quicker which is everything we could ask.

Despite the trying conditions, Giovinazzi was super quick in his Dallara-Mercedes from the outset and in the wet free practice sessions on Friday, 12th April, he was third fastest in the opening run and a sensational second quickest in the subsequent outing, only 0.090 seconds away from the top of the times at that point.

On a dry track in the first qualifying run though, he had to settle for 15th position on the grid for round four with Gelael 21st fastest and Caldern 28th. However, post-session, both Giovinazzi and Gelael had their best times taken away after being adjudged to have exceeded track limits so were demoted to 20th and 23rd respectively.

Gelaels luckless weekend continued in that vein shortly after the start of Saturday mornings damp race when he was pitched into a spin at the Abbey right-hander, incurring front-wing damage which required him to pit. Adding insult to injury, he was then served with a drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding and eventually ended the race in 25th place, one lap down.

Giovinazzi, who got a good launch away from the line, moved into 19th initially before being bundled back to 22nd place. Mounting a great recovery, he fought his way through into 14th by the finish and proved his pace by posting a best lap time of 1m54.095 seconds (185.8 km/h), only 0.2 seconds shy of the best of all.

Post-race though, Giovinazzi was incredibly unfortunate to be excluded from the results after his car had a problem with an exhaust lamda sensor. This led to high fuel consumption during the race and, ultimately, meant the required sample taken by officials in parc ferme wasnt deemed sufficientdespite the Dallara still being three kilograms over the minimum weight limit.

Caldern had a lot of hard work to do from 28th on the grid but the weekends sole female racer put together an impressive first couple of laps and climbed into 22nd position. Thereafter, she was edged back to an eventual finish of 23rd place.

For round five on Saturday afternoon Giovinazzi lined up in 15th position, where he should have been for race one, with Gelael 20th and Caldern an improved 24th on the grid. This time it was Giovinazzi who encountered bad luck, the Italian stalled on the gridafter a long delay before the lights went outand his right-rear wheel was caught by another car, leading to immediate retirement.

Unsurprisingly, the Safety Car was deployed in time for the beginning of lap two with Gelael in 17th, having avoided the midfield troubles, and Caldern in 25th position. Racing was ready to resume on lap four but there was more incident just before the re-start, a multi-car tangle at Vale enabling Gelael to move into 14th and Caldern to climb into 22nd.

Although slipping back to 17th by lap eight, Gelael regained 16th three laps from the finish to cap a strong race and a good recovery from the disappointment of the earlier encounter. Caldern too had a better race, gradually working her way up the order into 19th during the closing stages.

Aside from Giovinazzi and Calderns impressive drives in Sunday mornings sixth round, Gelael was classified 18th in the final classification despite an unfortunate spin on the final lap which meant he didnt take the flag.

Double R Racing will be back in action three weeks from now, on 4th/5th May, for rounds seven, eight and nine of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Hockenheim in Germany.‏

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