After picking up his first BRDC British F3 Championship win this afternoon at Silverstone, thecheckeredflag.co.uk caught up with Singaporean star Pavan Ravishankar.
The full-reverse grid set up for this year ensured a dire opening race for Ravishankar resulted in pole for the second event. This has not been a favoured hunting ground for many drivers this year, but after breaking away at the start, became the first driver this year to win race two from pole, comfortably over three seconds ahead of Renault Sport Development driver Sun Yue Yang.
“At a level like this it’s my first win and it means a lot. As I crossed the line I felt a lot of happiness and joy, but I think it will take a while to sink in.” he said on the podium.
While this is his first full season in the UK, the 18-year-old made a one-off appearance last season picking up two top ten finishers at the season finale with Double R Racing. This year has been notably more difficult though. Only one top ten finish prior to Silverstone has seen him consistently behind his championship challenging teammates.
He has been a race winner previously though. In Asian Formula Renault, he won at the final round of the year in China, finishing the championship in fifth overall.
He said the two were not closely related though; “It was a very different circumstance, different level and tracks.”
Silverstone looked like it would be a strong venue for Ravishankar and so it proved; “It was a bit of a surprise,” he said. “I knew going into Silverstone, we’d definitely be quicker than Snetterton, where we had a lot of pace, but it didn’t show in the races unfortunately due to a lot of trouble with my race craft.
“Today, starting on pole in race two, I knew I could grab a podium for sure, but I didn’t know it would end up being a victory. I’m really thankful and happy for this.”
It makes him the second Double R driver to win this season after championship leader Linus Lundqvist and sixth different victor this year.
“The levels are very high here, obviously the British drivers know their tracks and they race very differently here, so with the weather and conditions it’s been very difficult and steep learning curve so far. The team has helped me so much, not just supporting me morally, but also teaching me the specifics I need to learn and I couldn’t thank them enough for this.”
