Wymondham-based P1 Motorsport enjoyed three hugely successful 'home' races this weekend, as the 2004 Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Championship made its annual visit to Snetterton Circuit.
Northampton-based Adam Carroll (Northampton/Portadown) became a regular feature on the F3 winners' rostrum as he took two second places and a storming race win yesterday afternoon to promote him from eighth to third in the championship standings.
Carroll, who had frustratingly led for all but the final three laps in the first of the twin encounters, made it all good in the second race and so secured his second win of the year.
Said Carroll:
"It's been a pretty good weekend for me! I really needed a big points haul from Snetterton - and with three sets of points up for grab rather than the usual two*, it was critical to make the most of the situation. I'm gutted that I didn't make it two out of two, but at least I made up for it in the second race."
*the cancelled Round Four from Silverstone was run on Saturday
QUALIFYING
Rd 9: Adam Carroll - 3rd, Ernesto Viso - 5th From the very start of first 25-minute qualifying session, Viso and Carroll were the men to beat. Viso was first to top the timesheets, but team mate Carroll soon laid claim to the position, with both P1 Motorsport drivers nearly half a second clear of the rest of the pack. Viso, responding to the challenge from Carroll, reclaimed pole a couple of laps later, only for Carroll to again re-take the position. As the rest of the field closed the gap to the front-row men, Viso got caught up in traffic on a brace of fast laps and was so pushed down to third position when the session was stopped due to incidents on track.
Things remained fairly static when the session was restarted, with 14-minutes left to run. Although no one seemed able to improve upon their times, Viso proved the exception, shaving 1/100th of a second off his time to match James Rossiter's time for second. As Ernesto set his time later, he stayed in third. With five minutes left, Carroll's Dallara chassis snapped away from him at the fast Bombhole Corner and, concerned that he'd picked up a puncture, the provisional pole-man drew into the pitlane.
With the top 17 cars covered by less than one second, it looked as though Carroll had got the best of a super-competitive F3 field. But, as the chequered flag came out, so the sun went in, producing the most ideal track conditions of the session - and first Nelson Piquet Jnr and then Lucas Di Grassi were best placed on track to take the advantage and snatch pole from under Carroll's nose.
Carroll therefore ended the session in a very frustrated third position and Viso fifth.Rd 10: Adam Carroll - 2nd, Ernesto Viso - 13th The dry and sunny conditions prevailed into the second qualifying session of the day. With track temperatures so critical for the F3 pack, both P1 Motorsport drivers spent the first eight minutes in the pitlane waiting for the right moment to take to the track. As the cloud cover came over for the first time, so Viso and Carroll powered out of the pitlane and into the race for pole position. As both drivers tried to find track position, it was Viso who appeared on the time sheets first, in eighth. Carroll was taking longer to play himself into the session and when the red flags came out with ten minutes to go, the Northampton-based driver found himself languishing down in 16th.
When the session restarted, Viso and Carroll found themselves in tenth and 11th places respectively. Five minutes remained and it was all or nothing for the P1 Motorsport duo. Carroll, who was flying, timed his lap to perfection and sensationally leapt from outside the top ten to grab pole position. With yellow caution flags being shown at Riches Corner for an incident, Carroll's pole was surely in the bag. But with the yellow flags still out and just one and a half minutes to go, James Rossiter went quickest to demote Carroll down to second. Despite Carroll's protestations to the Clerk of the Course, he remained in second place.
Viso, who'd been battling traffic the entire session, just could not find a clear lap and despite being only half a second from pole, could do no better than 13th position.
ROUND FOUR REPLACEMENT (Silverstone)Adam Carroll - 2nd, Ernesto Viso - 12th
The British F3 grid lined up for their first of three races this weekend late on Saturday afternoon, for the replacement Silverstone Round Four.
With grid positions as set at Silverstone, neither P1 Motorsport driver had a great grid slot - Carroll was in sixth, Viso in 12th. But with both drivers showing such great turn of speed during qualifying earlier in the day, the team was looking forward to two strong points finishes.
Carroll made a terrific start, blasting off the line to take second place going into the first corner. Right on the gearbox of race leader Piquet Jnr, Carroll headed a train of closely-matched cars over the opening few laps. Although he was keeping the chasing pack at bay, he couldn't quite match the pace of Piquet Jnr and despite setting fastest laps early in the race, the gap to Piquet remained at around one second. A three lap Safety Car period at one third distance gave Carroll a chance to get the better of the Brazilian, but although he judged the re-start to perfection, Piquet covered his line into the first corner and Carroll remained second. A tremendous effort to the line saw Carroll take valuable second placed points, less than two seconds off Piquet.
From 12th on the grid, Viso was always going to be in the thick of the race action. Unfortunately for Viso, he suffered from the too-close attentions of Karun Chandhok at the opening corner, which caused him to spin out and rejoin last.
The rest of the 23-lap race was a huge battle for the talented Venezuelan. Having forced his way past the Scholarship Class field, he set about catching and then passing cars for position. A solid move on Chandhok down the back straight enabled Viso to claim 13th and then a tremendous move several laps later down the inside of Will Davison under braking for the Esses saw him up to 12th. Although a top ten points finish was tantalisingly close, with James Walker and Will Power less than one second ahead, Viso simply ran out of laps - and took the flag in 12th.
ROUND NINEAdam Carroll - 2nd, Ernesto Viso - 5th
Carroll came close to securing his second race victory of the season in the first F3 encounter today (Sunday). Having led for 20 of the 23 laps, the impressive Northampton-based young gun had given it his all, but frustratingly had no answer to Piquet Jnr as the race came to a close.
Carroll made a phenomenal race start, taking second on the run to the first corner and then putting a great move on Piquet Jnr into the Bombhole corner to take the lead on the opening lap. With Piquet attached to his gearbox, Carroll set about trying to shake the Brazilian and, at the end of lap two he'd pulled out a good half second lead. The Safety Car was deployed a lap later and, at the restart, Carroll had it all to do again. Despite Piquet going with him, Carroll kept his cool and his advantage. Although the gap back to Piquet varied from less than half a second to nearly a second, the race-long pressure on Carroll was immense. As the race progressed towards its climax, Carroll's car was getting looser and looser at the back and Piquet sensed his chance. On lap 18, Carroll's advantage was just a few tenths and two laps later, Piquet challenged through the Esses Corner - and emerged as race leader. Carroll, who could not afford a non-finish, defended strongly but ultimately had to let Piquet through. Although he chased him to the line, the Irishman stayed second at the flag.
Viso had another fraught race, but still claimed a solid fifth place finish. Clutch problems at the start meant he struggled to make any places over the opening lap, but with typical determination, Viso held onto his fifth place grid position. Right behind the battle for third between Alvaro Parente and Clivio Piccione, Viso was having to defend his line from the chasing pack headed by Will Power and Danilo Dirani. But when Parente went off on the second lap, Viso suddenly found himself swamped by Power and Dirani who had not backed off under the yellow caution flags. Understandably livid when both cars went through, Viso retained fifth place when Piccione dropped down the order.
With the top six remaining static for the majority of the race, Viso kept his head down and continued to chase Dirani for fourth, whilst soaking up the pressure from Watts behind. Although Watts briefly demoted Viso for position towards the end when they ran into traffic, Viso took the position back with a great move into Coram. Viso therefore held onto fifth place at the flag.
ROUND TEN Adam Carroll - WON, Ernesto Viso - 9th
Carroll made up for the disappointment of not winning the first race of the day, to storm to his second victory of the season in the final F3 encounter today.
Carroll timed his race start to perfection, storming off the line from his outside front row grid position to beat pole-sitter James Rossiter into the first corner. Having gained that vital advantage at the start - and having had to concede victory earlier in the day to Piquet Jnr - Carroll was determined, and flying, out at the front.
Although Rossiter kept Carroll honest for the entire race duration, the P1 Motorsport driver was always in control. And after a hard-charging 20 laps of the 1.9-mile Snetterton Circuit, Carroll took the flag and a well deserved second win of the year.
From 13th on the grid, Viso was once again in the thick of the action from the off. Although the top two made a break quite early on, the battle from third place down to Viso in 13th was intense. But the sheer competitiveness of the F3 runners this weekend meant that any advantage was hard to find. Despite relentlessly firing in consistent and quick laps, Viso was frustratingly static in terms of track position. Although he was promoted up to 11th at mid-distance - due to problems for Danilo Dirani and Clivio Piccione - any further progress was only going to be possible if someone made a mistake. Whilst Viso kept his cool and race speed for the duration, Will Davison and Marko Asmer both fell down the order over the last couple of laps, promoting Viso to ninth at the flag. Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2004 Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Championship take place at Castle Combe Circuit, Wilts, on 19th and 20th June.
QUALIFYING - ROUND NINE
1 23 Lucas DI-GRASSI BRA Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 1:01.619 2 33 Nelson A PIQUET BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.654 3 18 Adam CARROLL GBR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.672 4 7 James ROSSITER GBR Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 1:01.690 5 19 Ernesto VISO VEN Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.690 6 2 Alvaro PARENTE POR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.735 7 10 Will POWER AUS Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.770 8 1 Clivio PICCIONE MON Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.869 9 21 Danilo DIRANI BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.949 10 32 Karun CHANDHOK IND Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.980
QUALIFYING - ROUND TEN
1 7 James ROSSITER GBR Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 1:01.703 2 18 Adam CARROLL GBR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.808 3 23 Lucas DI-GRASSI BRA Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 1:01.813 4 33 Nelson A PIQUET BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.830 5 10 Will POWER AUS Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.910 6 11 Danny WATTS GBR Lola-Dome F106-4 Mugen-Honda 1:01.948 7 4 Marko ASMER EST Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 1:01.984 8 21 Danilo DIRANI BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:01.991 9 3 Andrew THOMPSON GBR Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 1:02.025 10 39 Fairuz FAUZY MAL Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 1:02.153 11 1 Clivio PICCIONE MON Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:02.153 12 2 Alvaro PARENTE POR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:02.200 13 19 Ernesto VISO VEN Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1:02.209
RACE RESULT - ROUND FOUR REPLACEMENT
1 33 Nelson A PIQUET BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:49.593 23 2 18 Adam CARROLL GBR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:51.500 23 3 23 Lucas DI-GRASSI BRA Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 26:53.043 23 4 21 Danilo DIRANI BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:54.737 23 5 11 Danny WATTS GBR Lola-Dome F106-4 Mugen-Honda 26:55.311 23 6 2 Alvaro PARENTE POR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:57.039 23 7 39 Fairuz FAUZY MAL Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 26:58.862 23 8 1 Clivio PICCIONE MON Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:59.676 23 9 3 Andrew THOMPSON GBR Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 27:00.271 23 10 10 Will POWER AUS Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 27:06.799 23 11 24 James WALKER GBR Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 27:07.255 23 12 19 Ernesto VISO VEN Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 27:07.802 23
RACE RESULT - ROUND NINE
1 33 Nelson A PIQUET BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:01.173 22 2 18 Adam CARROLL GBR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:01.773 22 3 10 Will POWER AUS Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:04.857 22 4 21 Danilo DIRANI BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:05.531 22 5 19 Ernesto VISO VEN Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:11.478 22 6 11 Danny WATTS GBR Lola-Dome F106-4 Mugen-Honda 25:11.854 22 7 39 Fairuz FAUZY MAL Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 25:13.137 22 8 5 Will DAVISON AUS Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 25:13.843 22 9 1 Clivio PICCIONE MON Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:14.356 22 10 24 James WALKER GBR Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 25:17.864 22
RACE RESULT - ROUND TEN1 18 Adam CARROLL GBR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 21:05.660 20 2 7 James ROSSITER GBR Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 21:06.025 20 3 10 Will POWER AUS Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 21:07.983 20 4 33 Nelson A PIQUET BRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 21:08.452 20 5 11 Danny WATTS GBR Lola-Dome F106-4 Mugen-Honda 21:14.826 20 6 39 Fairuz FAUZY MAL Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 21:16.743 20 7 23 Lucas DI-GRASSI BRA Dallara F304 Renault Sodemo 21:26.592 20 8 2 Alvaro PARENTE POR Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 21:26.826 20 9 19 Ernesto VISO VEN Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 21:27.270 20 10 5 Will DAVISON AUS Dallara F304 Opel Spiess 21:27.814 20
