Mixed fortunes in Spain but points and gains underline progress
Round 5 - Barcelona - Report
The Formula 3 triple-header reached its conclusion today in Spain, where Hitech TGR experienced a weekend of highs and lows but continued to underline its performance uplift in the past three rounds.
The two points claimed by Martinius Stenshorne in today’s Feature Race were welcome, but as a weekend haul it was ultimately disappointing given what might have been in Saturday’s Sprint.
Starting from second on the reverse grid, he got off to a fantastic start and dived to the inside at Turn 1. Tramnitz opted for the outside line and collided with Martinius, spinning the Norwegian into the path of Bilinski in an incident that took out all three drivers as a result of the contact.
Martinius lined up in P10 for today’s Feature Race and after a fantastic start he gained five places to end the first lap in fifth. Lap 3 saw a Safety Car tighten the pack and when racing resumed going into Lap 8, the McLaren Academy driver dived past Taponen into the first corner. But with the following cars also chasing down podiums and points, the battle at the front was fiercely contested, and saw one DRS pass after another. Determined to stay out of trouble after Saturday’s no-fault incident, Martinius had to settle for ninth.
Rookie Gerrard Xie is gaining in confidence with every round and in each of the past four races – in Monaco and Spain – he has gained eight places on his starting position. This weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, he started both races in P29 and finished 21st, once again keeping things clean and consistent, which is how the results he is targeting will ultimately come.
It was a similar story for Hitech’s other Rookie, Jesse Carrasquedo Jr, who made his F3 debut with the squad this weekend. With a new car to learn in the white heat of the competitive action, he kept his head and delivered a solid performance from the outset in Free Practice, took another solid step in Qualifying, and improved on his grid position by three places on Saturday and four in today’s Feature Race.
The team will now regroup during the four-week break and aims to come back strong for the second half of the season, which gets underway at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on 27-29 June. The second of three double-headers, the team’s home race at Silverstone follows just one week later.