Rupert Svendsen-Cook fought off a tenacious challenge from Carlin team-mate and Round 1 winner, Felipe Nasr to win Round 2 of the opening 2011 British Formula 3 weekend at Monza. The British driver led home Nasr by little over 1 second after 12 laps with Fortec Motorsport’s William Buller rounding off the podium in 3rd.
HiTech’s Riki Christodoulou started on pole after finishing 6th in Round 1, joined by Svendsen-Cook on the front row. Svendsen-Cook didn’t take long to snatch the lead with a textbook move into the first chicane.
Afterwards he quickly set about pulling away, as the Suffolk-based driver explained after the race: “I overtook Riki into the first chicane and then really pushed hard to break the tow,” said Svendsen-Cook. “All I focused on after that was pushing hard, no mistakes, and consistent lap times and I got a good gap to break the tow so they couldn't catch me. It was great, particularly after making a dreadful start. The car completely bogged down and I got too much wheelspin…”
Felipe Nasr launched his charge to the front early on. The Brazilian started in 6th place after taking victory in Round 1, and dispatched Jazeman Jaafar and Lucas Foresti within the first few laps. Christodoulou fell to Nasr on lap 4 and he began chasing down Round 1 pole-sitter William Buller. Nasr got past on the start/finish straight, but by that time ‘SC’ was too far down the road and the 20-minute round was soon over.
Buller endured a frustrating 1st round on Saturday, meaning a podium marked his best result of the weekend so far. “To finish on the podium is what we are here to do. I got the fastest lap, so I took the same total points as Rupert. It's a solid enough performance and now I am looking forward to the main race, which I start from the pole.” The Irishman said afterwards – he starts on pole position for Round 3 after posting the quickest times on Saturday.
The race wasn’t incident free however, Menasheh Idafar and Lucas Foresti crashed on the penultimate lap forcing National Champion Idafar to retire while Foresti earned himself a 20-second time penalty from the stewards, relegating the Fortec driver to 17th place.
T-Sport’s Bart Hylkema was the only contestant in the Rookie Class, his main opponent Katuro Sakurai failed to start due to the damage he sustained by running into Hylkema in Round 1.
Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series
Round 2, Monza ITA 17/4/2011
12 laps / 43.195 miles
Provisional results Championship class
1 Rupert SVENDSEN-COOK, Carlin Dallara-VW 21m 30.188s / 120.546mph
2 Felipe NASR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +1.045s
3 William BULLER, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes +1.568s
4 Riki CHRISTODOULOU, Hitech Dallara-Volkswagen +6.636s
5 Jazeman JAAFAR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +7.713s
6 Carlos HUERTAS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +15.692s
7 Hywel LLOYD, Sino Vision Dallara-Mercedes +20.050s
8 Kevin MAGNUSSEN, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +20.506s
9 Pietro FANTIN, Hitech Dallara-Volkswagen +22.013s
10 Jack HARVEY, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +22.205s etc
Provisional results Rookie class
1 Bart HYLKEMA, T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda +32.581s
Fastest lap: Buller 1m 46.377s / 121.789mph
Provisional championship standings
1 Nasr 30 points; 2 Jaafar 21; 3 Buller 20; 4 Svendsen-Cook 18; 5 Huertas 17; 6 Christodoulou 13 etc.
Rookie class: 1 Hylkema 12.
Full Results Here: http://www.imagevaults.co.uk/monzaf3/04_race2.pdf
Round 3 – the last of the weekend – begins at 11:15am (BST +1)
