First British F3 win for Nick Tandy and JTR team at Rockingham
Nick Tandy claimed an emotional maiden race victory in the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series at Rockingham this afternoon, the 24-year-old triumphing for the JTR team on his home track, a matter of days after the death of his elder brother and team chief Joe.
There was barely a dry eye in the house as Tandy, the first British winner in the championship so far this season, mounted the top step of the podium. Nick's win at the wheel of his Mygale-Mercedes brought to an end a 16-race victory streak for the Dallara chassis.
An even bigger boost for Tandy was that the runaway championship leader, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, failed to score a single point. After starting from the pole, the Carlin Motorsport man collided with Renger van der Zande's fast-starting Hitech car at the Deene hairpin on the opening lap as Dan tried to regain the lead. Ricciardo's Dallara was too badly damaged to continue while van der Zande was forced to the pits for repairs to his rear wing.
"I couldn't believe my luck when I saw van der Zande and Ricciardo," said Nick, who drove around the carnage, and Marcus Ericsson, to take the lead. "I didn't make a particularly good start, so to see Daniel riding over the back of Renger... my God, did I smile. So far as the championship is concerned it just doesn't get any better than this. To score 20 championship points when our main title rival scores zero, it's fantastic."
Tandy pulled clear of his closest pursuer, Swedish returnee Ericsson, by nearly a second-and-half on the opening lap and proceeded to build his advantage with every lap, taking the flag 8.6s clear. There was drama right on the line as Nick braked and swerved by his pit crew to acknowledge their cheers - he braked so hard it broke his suspension and a front wheel fell off, preventing him from completing a victory lap.
Ericsson had no hope of catching Tandy, he said: "I made a good start but I was delayed when Daniel and Renger had their accident, and Nick went past. From then on Nick had much better pace that we couldn't really match." It was a good championship return nonetheless for Marcus, and an excellent debut for him with the Raikkonen Robertson team.
Daisuke Nakajima moved into third at the start and held on for the final podium slot despite strong pressure throughout from his Raikkonen Robertson team-mate Carlos Huertas. It was the Japanese driver's maiden British F3 podium. Huertas's fourth place was his best result of the season also. Max Chilton came home fifth, the leading Volkswagen runner, with Riki Christodoulou's Fortec car completing the top six.
National Class honours went for the third time this season to Fortec's Daniel McKenzie; Brazilian T-Sport driver Gabriel Dias led the class for much of the race but collected a penalty for overtaking under the yellow warning flags. He recovered from his drive-through penalty to take second in class.
Round 5 provisional result, Rockingham, 31/5/2009
25 laps / 48.50 miles
1 INT Nick Tandy/GBR, JTR Mygale-Mercedes, 30m 57.771s / 93.98mph
2 INT Marcus Ericsson/SWE, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +8.608s
3 INT Daisuke Nakajima/JPN, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +17.310s
4 INT Carlos Huertas/COL, RR Dallara-Mercedes, +18.226s
5 INT Max Chilton/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +18.800s
6 INT Riki Christodoulou/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +19.641s
7 INT Henry Arundel/GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, +23.176s
8 INT Victor Garcia/ESP, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes, +26.969s
9 INT Wayne Boyd/GBR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, +28.786s
10 INT Jay Bridger/GBR, Litespeed Mygale-Mugen Honda, +32.909s
11 NAT Daniel McKenzie/GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda, +39.365s
12 NAT Gabriel Dias/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda, +40.662s
13 INT Stéphane Richelmi/MON, Barazi-Epsilon Dallara-Mercedes, +47.740s
14 NAT Max Snegirev/RUS, West-Tec Dallara-Mugen Honda, +1m 04.444s
15 NAT Victor Correa/BRA, Litespeed-Mugen Honda, +1m 08.315s
16 INT Adriano Buzaid/BRA, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen, 24 laps
NOT CLASSIFIED
INT Walter Grubmüller/AUT, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, 21 laps
INT Hywel Lloyd/GBR, CF Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda, 19 laps
INT Renger van der Zande/NED, Hitech Dallara-Mercedes, 9 laps
INT Daniel Ricciardo/AUS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, 0 laps
