King: It feels like our season has finally got going!
Jordan King maintained his burgeoning mid-season momentum as the fiercely-contested FIA Formula 3 European Championship made its debut at Moscow Raceway, with a hard-earned third consecutive podium sending the gifted Warwickshire ace leapfrogging up the title standings.
King travelled to the anti-clockwise Russian circuit – on the outskirts of the country’s capital – buoyed by his most successful weekend of 2014 to-date at the Norisring in Germany, where he had splashed through the spray to grab a brace of rostrum finishes. He continued that excellent form in rather different climatic conditions at Moscow Raceway, battling searing temperatures to lap a competitive fourth-fastest during practice amongst the 20 protagonists – the indisputable crème de la crème of young racing talent at F3 level.
He subsequently improved further by placing his Carlin-prepared, Volkswagen-powered Dallara single-seater a superb second on the starting grid for race one, backing that performance up with sixth for race two and fifth for race three. Given that qualifying has been something of a bugbear for him this year, it was quite a fillip.
In a cat-and-mouse opening encounter, King initially piled the pressure upon race and championship leader Esteban Ocon, but as his tyres began to fade, he found himself being hunted down by Max Verstappen – the series’ form driver arriving in Russia with six straight triumphs to his name – and experienced F3 contender Tom Blomqvist, with little to separate the front-running quartet.
Refusing to buckle under the mounting threat as his pursuers closed to within almost striking-distance, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) SuperStar, MSA Team UK protégé and former McLaren Autosport Award finalist produced a magnificent defence to artfully stave them off, putting not so much as a wheel out-of-place and even summoning up enough extra pace to home back in on Ocon by the time the chequered flag fell. He looked fresh as a daisy afterwards, too.
The second outing the next day transpired to be a distinctly processional affair, with scarcely an overtaking move in sight. After very nearly gaining a spot when the starting lights went out, King rapidly settled into a five-way scrap over the runner-up spoils. He took advantage of a mid-race problem for Verstappen to advance to fifth where he would stay to the end, proving to be consistently the fastest driver on the track over the closing stages as he unleashed a scintillating turn of raw speed.
The 20-year-old looked set to complete his weekend’s work in race three with a fourth-place finish – if not indeed better – only for a coming-together with Lucas Auer to damage his car’s suspension and consign him to an early bath. Still, having vaulted up the points table from eighth into sixth – and having unquestionably rediscovered his mojo following a troubled start to his sophomore campaign in the series – King is justifiably bullish about his prospects for the remaining four meetings.
“It felt like things had started to come together at the Norisring,” affirmed the reigning British F3 Champion and Hugo Boss brand ambassador, “so I headed to Moscow in confident frame of mind. I’d raced there before in Formula Renault which helped slightly as it meant I knew roughly which way the circuit went, but I didn’t remember that much, in truth, and the cars were so different that it wasn’t really a direct comparison.
“It’s a fun track to drive and pretty physical, which is a challenge I always enjoy – it’s all medium-speed corners, so you’re constantly turning and never really get much of a break. Factor in the temperatures that we had on Saturday and Sunday, and fitness was fairly key.
“Qualifying is crucial every weekend in F3, although it was even more so at Moscow Raceway given the lack of overtaking opportunities. At a track like this, starting up at the sharp end is particularly important and it was mega to line up second on the grid for race one – it’s far better to qualify on the front row than having to fight your way through the field, which has been the case a few times this year!
“I went after Ocon to begin with and was able to stick with him reasonably well, but in so doing, I probably took a little too much life out of my tyres, which allowed Verstappen and Blomqvist to reel me back in later on. It was a bit of a yo-yo race between the four of us, but I managed the situation and was very happy to finish second.
“Fifth in race two was another solid result – our speed over the second half was particularly encouraging – and we were looking in good shape in race three as well. I thought we had a decent shot at third, but I made a small mistake and ran wide which cost me a couple of positions. I immediately tried to limit the damage by attacking Auer for fifth, but he didn’t leave me enough room when I got alongside and with nowhere to go, we unfortunately made contact.
“That was obviously disappointing, but overall, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic as we made further progress and gained some more ground in the championship. It’s taken a little while to get there, admittedly, but it feels like our season has finally got going.”
