THIRD WIN OF BRITISH F3 SEASON FOR LEIST AT SILVERSTONE GP
• Title challenger Leist takes win number three for Double R Racing • Bortoleto hits back from Rd13 shunt to gain 10 positions in Rd14• Huovinen retains top six in standings despite mixed weekend• Torrential rain forces abandonment and cancellation of race three
Matheus Leist returned to winning ways at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend, 11th/12th June, during the fifth event of the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship season with a superb victory for Double R Racing in round 13 of the campaign.
Potentially, the Brazilian could have added another success in round 15 on Sunday afternoon but so torrential did a developing storm become prior to the race, officials opted to abandon the whole meeting with rivers of water across the track and huge amounts of standing water on the surface.
Even so, Leist held onto his top three placing in the championship, moving to within three points of second position, while team-mates Aleksanteri Huovinen and Enzo Bortoleto concluded a weekend of mixed fortunes sixth and ninth in the championship respectively.
“It’s been a great weekend for Matheus with another win and it might have been even better if race three had run, with him due to start on pole – the Gods had other ideas though”, said team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, “It’s been a great performance from the team this weekend, the pace has been mega and it’s a big confidence boost now for the visit to Spa next month.”
Leist made an exceptionally strong start to the event in testing by topping the times 0.3 seconds clear and he was on course for pole position in qualifying on Saturday, but was pipped at the very end of the session by a rival on a second set of fresh tyres. He still lined-up on the front row for round 13, though, with Huovinen eighth on the grid and Bortoleto setting the ninth fastest time.
While Leist was edged back to third spot off the line at the start of the opening contest, Huovinen also lost a place to slip to ninth but Bortoleto had the worst of it – after being unable to get away from the grid, his car was slammed into by the unsighted Krishnaraaj Mahadik and the race was quickly red flagged with Bortoleto taken to the circuit medical centre as a precaution.
At the re-start, over a shortened duration of six laps, Leist made no mistakes at the second time of asking and leapt into the lead from second on the grid before going on to control the contest with an imperious performance.
Leading by an impressive 1.3 seconds at the end of the opening tour, Leist continued to press home his advantage with fastest lap after fastest lap to claim victory by 4.3 seconds – he actually set the quickest lap of all on the final tour, a time of 1m57.126 seconds. Huovinen had to pit at the end of the first tour as a result of a lap one incident and eventually ended the race a lap down in 16th spot.
Rain prior to the start of round 14 on Sunday morning resulted in a damp track for the second race of the weekend with Leist eighth on the ‘reverse grid’, Huovinen starting in 16th place and Bortoleto in 19th position in his fully repaired Cosworth-powered Tatuus.
Befitting his level of performance shown throughout the weekend, Leist made a sensational start to the race and put together a stunning opening lap. Slicing his way through into fourth place in double quick time, the Brazilian then grabbed third out of Brooklands from pole-starter Jan Jonck.
Showcasing notable commitment Leist swarmed all over the back of Sisa Ngebulana’s car and momentarily moved into second place at Stowe, but after running slightly wide at Club he slipped back to third again.
Then, on lap four, the Double R driver was edged back to fourth by Lando Norris as the pair battled closely behind Ngebulana but Leist produced a superb move around the outside of the latter at The Loop to move back into the podium placings where he stayed to the finish. The chequered flag was shown on lap eight when the race was under Safety Car conditions following an incident at Luffield.
Huovinen and Bortoleto had a lot to do from the lower order, the Brazilian especially, but both raced impressively in the challenging conditions. Bortoleto leapt into the top 15 on the opening lap, just ahead of Huovinen, and the team-mates continued to circulate in very close company as the order shuffled over the course of the first few laps.
By the start of lap four the Finn was back ahead of Bortoleto, running in 11th and 12th respectively, and they each moved up a place the next time around before Bortoleto got back ahead of Huovinen as the rain made a return.
Into lap six Bortoleto held ninth – a fantastic gain of 10 positions on his starting slot and a brilliant fightback after Saturday’s dramas – with Huovinen just behind. While he held onto his top 10 placing as the Safety Car appeared, the Finn was edged back to 11th place in the end. As a result of an exclusion for Ngebulana, though, Bortoleto moved up into eighth and Huovinen into 10th spot.
“We had great pace this weekend with Matheus, a good half second clear in race one with the lap times, but Enzo and Aleksanteri just didn’t have the luck with them”, added Hieatt, “Enzo did well to come back so strongly from the race one incident, it was a good drive through in race two, and Aleksanteri did a good job too. The aim for Spa is for all three to be fighting for the podium.”
Next on the BRDC British F3 schedule is the eagerly anticipated visit to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Friday, 8th July, and Saturday, 9th July. Next weekend, 18th/19th June, Double R Racing’s F4 British Championship team will be back in action at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire for the fifth event of its season.
2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd15):3rd Matheus Leist, 276pts6th Aleksanteri Huovinen, 177pts 9th Enzo Bortoleto, 159pts
Click here for the Official Double R Racing web site - designed and built by Racecar
