NEWS

TEAM NEWS 30 JUNE 2012: Carlin's Will Buller has taken a brilliant win around the Norisring this morning following an incident packed first race of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship weekend in Germany. Team mate Pietro Fantin also had a strong race to take a great British Formula 3 International Series class win following an incident packed race one. Harry Tincknell also picked up points with an eighth place position, Harvey and Jaafar took 14th and 18th while Sainz hit the barriers forcing his retirement on the first lap.

Following damage to the track yesterday, which was unable to be rectified quickly, it was deemed that qualifying should not go ahead as scheduled. As a result the combined 28 car Formula 3 field took to the track for qualifying this morning instead.

With 10 minutes of the session complete Buller was the top Carlin runner in second while Jaafar, Sainz and Fantin were also sitting comfortably within the top 10 however times and positions began to trade quickly towards the end of the running.

In the final couple of minutes Buller sped straight to the top of the time sheets with a great lap of 49.238 however this time was bettered by Marciello and then by Wehrlein who took pole position away from the Carlin man. The result saw Buller line up fourth on the grid for the opening race of the weekend, with Fantin in fifth and Sainz in seventh. Jaafar, Harvey and Tincknell started from 12th, 14th and 15th respectively.

The first race of the day saw a chaotic opening lap for the Carlin drivers as they made their way around the German track. At the first corner Harvey collided with team mate Jaafar which saw the Malaysian driver lose his front wing. Harvey was given a drive through penalty for the collision, which resulted in the safety car being deployed on track. Just up the road Sainz had also suffered bad luck and had retired from the race after colliding with the wall on the opening lap.

With the safety car back in the pits a few laps later the cars could get back into their rhythm around the short lap. However a three car collision soon elevated the strong starting Tincknell to 8th with the Carlin man extremely lucky to miss the crash; having to take avoiding action around the outside. Jaafar was running at the back of the grid following his first lap incident and Harvey was in 22nd as a result of his drive through.

Meanwhile at the front of the grid Buller was caught up in a fight for third position with Italian driver Marciello which he unfortunately lost out on. Just behind a battle between a feisty looking Fantin was brewing as he began to eye up Bernstorff ahead of him.

In the closing minutes of the race a collision between race leaders Wehrlein and Juncadella took race leader Wehrlein out of the running, and just seconds later Marciello also spun on track hitting the wall and forcing a retirement. This last lap carnage saw Buller elevated up to second position; however a post-race penalty for Juncadella saw him lose the win for causing the collision – giving Buller the victory. Fantin crossed the line as the highest placed British F3 runner in third position – taking home maximum points for his championship campaign.

Tincknell finished 8th overall (a third position in the British series) while Harvey and Jaafar crossed the line 14th and 18th respectively having made their way up the standings following their first lap incident.

Buller said, ‘It was a good race for me to have taken the win. I was running in a solid fourth place for most of it and so I’m really pleased to have won from there. We’ve had a strong car all weekend and qualifying this morning was also very positive for us so I’m looking forward to the final two races to see what happens.’

Happy with his British F3 class win, Pietro Fantin said, ‘I didn’t get the best start however I could see that I was in a good position compared with the other British F3 runners around me so I made sure to hold the gap and keep my pace. I was quicker than the car in front of me however I couldn’t get past but I knew that I would get the maximum British F3 points and win today. So I’m extremely pleased with the race.’