Coloni Motorsport team principal Paolo Coloni was overjoyed after seeinghis lead driver Patrick Friesacher claim the team’s first win of the seasonin round eight of the FIA Formula 3000 International Championship at theHungaroring today (Saturday).
It was Coloni Motorsport’s third consecutive race win following ToniVilander’s Italian Formula 3 double victory earlier this month. The resultmoves Friesacher into third position in the championship standings with tworounds still to run, while Coloni closed the gap to the Ma-Con entry in theteams’ championship.
“This is just fantastic for Patrick and for Coloni Motorsport,” said PaoloColoni. “He controlled the race and really deserved the win after not beingable to start at Hockenheim. Our strategy was perfect and the team did avery good pit stop. Patrick was like Michael Schumacher today and Coloniwas like Ferrari. I am so happy.”
Starting in third, Friesacher mastered the wet conditions to close on leadpair Vitantonio Liuzzi and Enrico Toccacelo, passing championship leaderLiuzzi on lap 14 after an earlier move for the position resulted in lightcontact. He moved into the lead during the tyre stops and he was neverheaded for the remainder of the race, taking the chequered flag with a twoand a half second advantage over Liuzzi.
Jose Maria Lopez, in the Coloni-managed CMS entry, finished eighth after ayellow flag indiscretion in qualifying resulted in his fastest time beingdisallowed, which forced him to start from 11th on the grid. Mathias Lauda,in the second CMS car, was similarly penalised and had to start in 14th.Lauda’s race came to an end when he spun two laps from home. Coloninewcomer Chanoch Nissany spun out shortly after making his tyre stop.
The championship resumes at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on August 28.
Race results, round eight, Hungaroring:
1 Patrick Friesacher (Coloni) 1hr08m38.544s2 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Arden) +2.513s3 Enrico Toccacelo (BCN) +20.188s4 Tomas Enge (Ma-Con) +21.543s5 Esteban Guerrieri (BCN) +42.359s6 Ernesto Viso (Durango) +48.551s7 Robert Doornbos (Arden) +61.456s8 Jose Maria Lopez (CMS) +77.992s
Championship positions: Drivers’: 1 Liuzzi 68; 2 Toccacelo 56; 3 Friesacher29; 4 Doornbos 27; 5 Enge 25; 6 Lopez and Gianmaria 22; 13 Lauda 2.
Teams:1 Arden 96; 2 BCN 78; 3 Ma-Con; 4 Coloni 26; 5 CMS 24; 6 AEZ 22.
