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| September 21, 2009 |
| British F3: Carlin Motorsport Sweeps Brands Hatch Season-Finale |
 | Max Chilton provided Carlin Motorsport with a winning end to the 2009 British F3 season
(Photo: Jakob Ebrey Motorsports Photography) |
The Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series season concluded in some style on Sunday (September 20 )at the Brands Hatch Circuit, with race wins for Carlin teammates Daniel Ricciardo and Max Chilton. Ricciardo crowned his championship-winning season with a dominant display in the first of the day's races and Chilton brought his British F3 career to a close in the best possible way, with a lights-to-flag win in the finale.
Newly crowned Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Champion Daniel Ricciardo demonstrated exactly why he's the crown-wearer with a virtuoso display in Round 19 of the championship. The 20 year-old Australian led all the way from pole position, lowered the lap record twice, and claimed the biggest victory margin of the season on his way to his seventh win.
Ricciardo and his Red Bull-backed Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Volkswagen extended their lead over pursuing teammate hilton on every lap bar one - when he encountered lapped traffic - and romped home more than 15 seconds clear.
"From the start I just got away and focused on my job and didn't have to worry once about what was going on behind me," said Ricciardo, who was boosted pre-race by a visit from the last Australian to wear the British F3 crown, David Brabham. "Carlin prepared an amazing car which was suited just perfectly to the conditions, which made my job quite easy. David Brabham wished me all the best and congratulated me on the title win. It's great to see him here supporting us young kids."
Chilton, unfazed by smoke billowing from his blazing brake pads at the end of the warming-up lap, made a good start from the front-row to slot into second at the lights but had no chance of catching Ricciardo.
"I was struggling under braking the whole race," said Chilton. "So second is a good result."
On a track notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities, fortune favoured the brave and accurate on the opening lap. Riki Christodoulou (Fortec Motorsport) and Marcus Ericsson (Raikkonen Robertson Racing) made good starts and held station in third and fourth, all the way to the end, with Hitech's Walter Grubmuller making up a couple of places away from the line, to net himself fifth.
Carlos Huertas held sixth throughout, ahead of Henry Arundel. Wayne Boyd made the best of a dramatic opening lap, making up three places, suffering front wing damage in the process which led to T-Sport calling him into the pits for repairs. His teammate Adriano Buzaid profited from Boyd's pit stop, inheriting eighth.
National Class Champion Daniel McKenzie made up an astonishing six places thanks to a lightning start and aggressive opening lap, with the Fortec driver winning his class easily and collecting ninth win overall, ahead of Hywel Lloyd.
Chilton brought his British F3 career to an impressive conclusion, leading the championship's final round from start to finish to claim the Carlin team's ninth victory of the season.
Chilton, who earlier clinched the Mirror.co.uk Challenge Cup as the championship's leading British driver, did not put a wheel wrong, as he took advantage of a rare startline error from newly crowned champion Ricciardo to blast into an early lead.
Chilton survived a safety car period, brought about by a crash involving the car of Max Snegirev, nailed the restart and romped home to win from Riki Christodoulou by a one-second margin.
"That meant a lot for me, because my win in Portugal wasn't an outright victory and didn't make the headlines," stated Chilton. "This will, and that's a big relief. I loved every minute of it. It was a pretty standard F3 race around here. Try to make places up at the start and, once I had done that, I knew it would be hard for anyone to pass me. The safety car was a bit of a worry, but I managed to pull out a good lead after that as well."
Chilton was additionally awarded the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend award.
Ericsson also got by polesitter Ricciardo at the start and slotted into third, which he held to the chequered flag, with the new champion recovering from his startline wobble to claim fourth.
"A bit disappointing," said Ricciardo. "The start was a problem. As soon as I released the clutch the wheels just started spinning and I think because there's a bit of a slope on the grid I couldn't really get out of it, so I went from first to fourth. But it's been a great year, a great weekend for the team and it's great to see Max get his win."
Arundel finished fifth on the road, but was later docked 20 seconds for a start infringement, which moved Grubmuller up a place. The Austrian netted enough points from the weekend to displace his absent Hitech teammate, Renger van der Zande, from the championship runner-up position.
Daisuke Nakajima claimed sixth ahead of Boyd, the Ulsterman beating his teammate Buzaid to seventh, with Carlos Huertas in ninth ahead of Victor Garcia, National Class winner Gabriel Dias and the final point-scorer Jay Bridger.
Canadian Philip Major failed to finish race one, before taking the checkered flag in 13th in Round 20.
British International F3 Series
Round #19 - Race Results
September 19, 2009
Brands Hatch Circuit - Kent, England
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Chassis-Engine | Diff.| 1. | Daniel Ricciardo | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | - | | 2. | Max Chilton | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 15.531 | | 3. | Riki Christodoulou | Fortec Motorsport | Dallara-Mercedes | 16.135 | | 4. | Marcus Ericsson | Raikkonen Robertson Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 17.890 | | 5. | Walter Grubmuller | Hitech Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 28.861 | | 6. | Carlos Huertas | Raikkonen Robertson Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 30.246 | | 7. | Henry Arundel | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 30.542 | | 8. | Adriano Buzaid | T-Sport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 36.912 | | 9. | Daniel McKenzie | Fortec Motorsport | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 55.307 | | 10. | Hywel Lloyd | CF Racing | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 57.945 | | 11. | Gabriel Dias | T-Sport | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 58.588 | | 12. | Victor Garcia | Fortec Motorsport | Dallara-Mercedes | 1:01.708 | | 13. | Jay Bridger | Litespeed F3 | Mygale-Mugen Honda | 1:05.608 | | 14. | Joe Ghanem | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 1 Lap | | 15. | Wayne Boyd | T-Sport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 2 Laps | | 16. | Ma Qinghua | West-Tec | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 2 Laps | | NC | Victor Correa | Litespeed F3 | Mugen Honda | 8 Laps | | NC | Philip Major | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 19 Laps | | NC | Max Snegirev | West-Tec | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 21 Laps | | NC | Daisuke Nakajima | Raikkonen Robertson Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 22 Laps | |
British International F3 Series
Round #20 - Race Results
September 20, 2009
Brands Hatch Circuit - Kent, England
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Chassis-Engine | Diff.| 1. | Max Chilton | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | - | | 2. | Riki Christodoulou | Fortec Motorsport | Dallara-Mercedes | 0.967 | | 3. | Marcus Ericsson | Raikkonen Robertson Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 2.552 | | 4. | Daniel Ricciardo | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 3.576 | | 5. | Walter Grubmuller | Hitech Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 15.303 | | 6. | Daisuke Nakajima | Raikkonen Robertson Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 15.794 | | 7. | Wayne Boyd | T-Sport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 16.462 | | 8. | Adriano Buzaid | T-Sport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 21.750 | | 9. | Carlos Huertas | Raikkonen Robertson Racing | Dallara-Mercedes | 22.003 | | 10. | Victor Garcia | Fortec Motorsport | Dallara-Mercedes | 22.522 | | 11. | Gabriel Dias | T-Sport | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 30.613 | | 12. | Jay Bridger | Litespeed F3 | Mygale-Mugen Honda | 31.073 | | 13. | Philip Major | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 31.642 | | 14. | Henry Arundel | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Volkswagen | 34.887 | | 15. | Daniel McKenzie | Fortec Motorsport | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 41.465 | | 16. | Joe Ghanem | Carlin Motorsport | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 59.614 | | 17. | Victor Correa | Litespeed F3 | Mugen Honda | 1:02.655 | | NC | Max Snegirev | West-Tec | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 17 Laps | | NC | Hywel Lloyd | CF Racing | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 21 Laps | | NC | Ma Qinghua | West-Tec | Dallara-Mugen Honda | 21 Laps | |
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