Harry Tincknell – a regular on the British Formula 3 podium and Round 11 winner remains upbeat despite enduring one of the worst weekends of his 2011 season so far.
Still in his maiden British F3 season, Tincknell firmly established himself as a potential front-runner with a decisive victory from pole position at Brands Hatch in June. Before then, Tincknell had claimed his 1st F3 podium in Round 5 at Oulton Park – including his Brands win, Harry has found himself in the top 3 at least once over the past 4 race meetings. His debut season has been impressive to say the least, but Paul Ricard offered him no such success, as a string of incidents in Rounds 17 and 18 meant the 19 year-old didn’t score points in either of Sunday’s races.
His French weekend began well enough with Round 16, which saw Tincknell produce a solid drive to 9th. In Round 17 though, contact with Pietro Fantin resulted in a drive-thru penalty, dropping down the order with no time to recover, resulting in a disappointing 17th.
Round 18 didn’t get much better for the Team UK-sponsored driver – a 4-way pile that ended Tincknell’s, Pye’s, Fantin’s and Jaafar’s races meant Harry left Southern France with only 2 championship points.
Nevertheless, Tincknell understands that a championship is made of highs and lows: “It was a difficult weekend, but it happens.” He said, “I think the disappointment this weekend is probably testament to how great my season has been so far.”
“I’m competing against many more experience driver but still scoring really strong results. I’m not going to be too downbeat about that happened at Paul Ricard.”
Tincknell finds himself an impressive 8th in the championship, though now with a sizeable gap up to Rupert Svendsen-Cook in 7th thanks to his trying Sunday.
