Consistent Huovinen consolidates top six position in championship Bortoleto ‘Driver of Weekend’ after bouncing back from Rd8 accident
Championship challenging BRDC British Formula 3 team Double R Racing added two more podiums to its 2016 tally at Rockingham in Northamptonshire over the weekend, with Brazilian star Matheus Leist finishing third in round seven of the season and then ending round nine as runner-up.
Elevating the first year F3 racer into the coveted championship top three, just a single point behind second place in the standings, the third event of the season again confirmed Double R’s capability of fighting it out for this year’s British F3 title.
Aleksanteri Huovinen put together a highly consistent weekend with fifth place in round seven on Saturday, 30th April, and another top five result in round eight on Sunday, 1st May, before the Finn concluded the weekend seventh in round nine.
It wasn’t an event without high drama for Double R, though, with Enzo Bortoleto involved in a horrifying accident in the weekend’s second race. Pitched into a barrel roll after receiving contact to the rear of his car on the opening lap into Chapman Curve, the Brazilian’s Tatuus then flipped end over end before coming to rest in the gravel upside down.
Fortunately, Bortoleto was able to walk away unscathed and the accident certainly underlined the safety of the British F3 car. Pleasingly, so strong were his drives in rounds seven and nine he was awarded the ‘Sunoco Driver of the Weekend’ accolade having gained most places across the event.
“It’s great to have a couple more podiums”, said team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, “I am a bit disappointed we didn’t get a win, but Matheus has done another fantastic job and Aleksanteri was quick too and consistent with some good points scores. The team did an amazing job to get Enzo out for race three, it was important for him to get back on the horse after that massive shunt.
“It’s been another strong team performance and we can see there’s going to be a great battle with Carlin this year with their drivers, we’re up for it and we aim to win the championship – we’re going to leave no stone unturned in trying to achieve that.”
In qualifying on Saturday, Leist concluded the red-flag interrupted session with the third fastest time, a mere 0.070 seconds shy of the front row of the grid, with Huovinen lapping fifth quickest just 0.3 seconds adrift. Unfortunately for Bortoleto, the session didn’t go to plan when he was excluded from the times after being adjudged to have failed to comply with the red flags sufficiently.
At the beginning of round seven, Leist made a good start and challenged for second but remained third and stayed there throughout the 14-lap duration – despite it later becoming apparent his car had a cracked gearbox, believed to be a legacy of slight contact with the wall during practice.
Producing superb pace, and staying in touch with the two cars ahead, the Brazilian secured his fourth podium of the year just a second shy of the runner-up spot and set the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1m13.760 seconds (94.68mph).
Much like his team-mate, Huovinen held station throughout the race in fifth and from mid-distance onward he began to edge away from his pursuers. Within 0.4 seconds of fourth place at the end of the opening tour, as the laps ticked by the field became more and more spread out.
Bortoleto made superb progress from the back of the 20 car grid to scythe his way through the order into an excellent top 12 finish, running pace a match for the top eight. Rocketing into the top 15 on lap one alone, he moved into 14th position on lap three and then gained another spot on the subsequent tour. With four laps to go, Bortoleto broke into the top 12 to cap an excellent drive.
For round eight on Sunday, Huovinen lined-up fourth on the ‘reverse grid’ with Leist sixth and Bortoleto on the sixth row in 12th place. Leist made a sensational start to leap-frog Huovinen and after taking fifth on the run to Turn One, he then grabbed fourth place on the run to Yentwood.
As the lead group threaded through Chapman Curve and into Pif-Paf, though, contact in the pack resulted in the horrifying cartwheel for Bortoleto’s car. Unsurprisingly leading to a red flag stoppage, the Brazilian was thankfully safely extricated from his upside-down chassis.
At the re-start, Leist again got away well from the line but he wasn’t able to capitalise fully on his great launch when a couple of cars ahead made light contact. Shortly after, though, Leist was able to thread his way through into third ahead of Huovinen in fourth and the pair ran nose-to-tail.
Houvinen then started to come under pressure from Lando Norris and through Turn One on lap four, the Finn was edged back to fifth. Leist was the next target for Norris and succumbed to an attack into Deene on the sixth tour and the Double R cars then remained in those positions to the finish.
Remarkable work from the Double R team to repair Bortoleto’s car enabled him to line-up on the grid for round nine and he made excellent progress, showing no ill effects from the massive accident he was involved in just a few hours earlier.
Leist, starting the final encounter second on the grid, made yet another good getaway and held position prior to the emergence of the Safety Car. At the re-start on lap four, he safely maintained his placing and remained in second throughout – lapping with almost identical pace to race winner Ricky Collard and finishing just 1.2 seconds adrift, only missing the fastest lap by a fraction.
Huovinen held onto his starting place of eighth initially before taking seventh before the Safety Car appeared and then, after the re-start, he produced a great pass into Steel Straight to take sixth. On lap seven, an unfortunate moment at the same part of the track dropped him back to seventh but he pressured the sixth and fifth place cars all the way to the flag with nothing between the trio.
Although edged back to 16th on lap one, Bortoleto made strong progress from lap five onward. Breaking into the top 15, he then took 14th place a couple of laps later and, with a superb move, climbed into 13th on lap 10 with a well-judged pass around the outside at Deene to hold the inside for Yentwood. He then managed to move into 12th during the closing stages to cap a great drive.
Rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the BRDC British F3 season will take place over Spring Bank Holiday weekend, 28th/29th/30th May, at Oulton Park in Cheshire. Before then, Double R will return to the track this coming weekend, 7th/8th May, at Thruxton in Hampshire for the third race meeting of the Ford MSA Formula season.
2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd9):3rd Matheus Leist, 163pts6th Aleksanteri Huovinen, 141pts11th Enzo Bortoleto, 93pts
Click here for the Official Double R Racing web site - designed and built by Racecar
