Tom Blomqvist endured a frustratingly tough FIA Formula 3 European Championship outing at the Red Bull Ring in Austria over the weekend, 1st/2nd June, where excellent race pace went largely unrewarded due to unfortunate incidents in the first and third races.
Still maintaining sixth in the points standings, the Red Bull Junior Team competitor posted a best finish of eighth position in round 14 on Saturday afternoon having produced an outstanding drive through the order from a highly uncharacteristic 18th on the grid.
Perplexed by an unexpected lack of pace in the rain-affected qualifying sessions on Friday, Blomqvist lined-up in 19th place for Saturdays first race, round 13, and the Cambridge-born driver was faced with a literal mountain to climb in the Spielberg hills.
Brilliantly rising to the occasion though, and with a much improved car from qualifying, the Briton produced a sensational drive through the field. Slicing his way into 13th position on the opening lap alone, he climbed into ninth by the 11th tour and then set about battling for the top eight.
On lap 19 though, going into Turn One, the Eurointernational driver was tagged from behind and pitched into a spin by Lucas Wolf, having just passed the German in a three car battle which also involved Alex Lynn. Dropping Blomqvist to 18th, he eventually took the chequered flag in 17th.
In round 14, Blomqvist again had to overcome a lower than expected starting position of 18th but this time he was able to showcase his racecraft unhindered and expertly carved his way through into a fantastic top eight finish. Notably, his best lap was a mere 0.03 seconds shy of the fastest of all.
Beginning Sunday mornings 15th round from 15th position, the Dallara-Mercedes pilot climbed into 14th place on the opening lap and looked all set for another points challenge. At the exit of Turn Two though on lap two, Jann Mardenborough spun and as Blomqvist went to the outside to avoid the stricken car it rolled back into the Red Bull drivers right-rear wheeleliminating him on the spot.
Tom Blomqvist:Its been a tough weekend and disappointing not to come away with more points. Qualifying was really mind boggling, we changed so much on the car it wasnt funny! We thought there might be an issue with the tyres, we just couldnt get to the bottom of why we were so far off in the wet.
In the first race, our pace seemed quite competitive. Unfortunately though, when I was passing for eighth place at Turn One, the other guy missed his braking and hit me. We were three wide, I had a better run on the outside but got turned round.
Race two was good though, eighth from 18th wasnt bad at all, but then in race three we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The race hadnt started too badly but as I went to avoid the car that had spun, it clipped my rear wheel and that was itgame over.
There is now a lengthy six week mid-season break in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship calendar with rounds 16, 17 and 18 set to take place at Germanys Norisring on 13th/14th July.
