F3 – RICCIARDO SCORES DOUBLE WIN

27 May 2013

  West AustralianDaniel Ricciardo got his British F3 championship campain off to the perfect start by winning both races at OultonPark on Monday. The Red Bull-backed Australian followed his Carlin team-mate Max Chilton for most of the first race before taking the lead with just a few laps remaining and then dominated the second race with a flag to flag win.

 

"I'm really pleased to have won my first F3 race," said Ricciardo. "The team said to me over the radio that Max had jumped the start and had a time penalty, so I knew I was racing for the lead. I pushed really hard towards the end and Nick (Tandy) kept me under pressure all the way."

 

 In effect Ricciardo had led all the way in race one as well as Max Chilton had jumped the start and was running with a one minute penalty. Chilton finished third on the road behind Nick Tandy but was classified 17th.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Daniel Ricciardo completed a dominant British F3 double by racing to a comfortable victory in race two. The Carlin driver made two superb getaways at the start of the race, which was restarted following a first corner crash involving T-Sport team-mates Wayne Boyd and Gabriel Dias.

 

 

On both occasions, poleman Walter Grubmuller fluffed his start and each time Ricciardo blasted past on the outside to take the lead before turn one.

From there, Ricciardo was able to pull out an instant gap on his Austrian rival and maintain pace consistently to flag.

 

 

"I wasn't sure I'd be able to get such a good start both times," said Ricciardo. "But it all worked out and from the first lap I was able to drive my own race and watch the gap back to the rest while keeping my laptimes fast and consistent."

 

Behind, Grubmuller showed strong pace in his pursuit of Ricciardo and even set the fastest race lap, but a couple of errors dropped him back into the clutches of the chasing Nick Tandy.

Tandy held station in third for most of the race, after winning a first lap duel with Max Chilton, and didn't have the pace to capitalise despite Grubmuller's occasional errors.