• Two more podiums for Double R Racing’s Leist at Snetterton• Brazilian ace just 15 points shy of series lead going into finale • Huovinen back into series top eight with best of eighth place• Bortoleto makes it all three Double R cars in top 10 in race two
Matheus Leist will go into the finale of the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship next month with his title ambitions intact, having secured a brace of podium finishes at Snetterton over the weekend, 6th/7th August, to depart the track only 15 points shy of the series lead for Double R Racing.
Scorching to second position in rounds 19 and 21, the Brazilian driver added a top six result in round 20 to ensure he goes into the season ending triple-header at Donington Park with a very realistic hope of challenging for the coveted championship crown.
“If we’d been on pole, probably I could have won the last race”, said Leist, “Ricky [Collard – series leader and race winner] was quite fast in the first laps, but then our pace was better later on and I got fastest lap too, but I couldn’t quite catch him. It’s not the best weekend for us, but not a bad weekend. I got a lot of points, let’s see what we can do at Donington – we need to win, win, win.”
Finnish team-mate Aleksanteri Huovinen leapt back into the series top eight after a consistently strong weekend, one which delivered a best result of eighth place in round 20 on Sunday morning. Racing to ninth position in the opening contest on Saturday, Huovinen only just missed out on making it a hat-trick of top 10 finishes by a mere 0.3 seconds in round 21 – taking 11th position.
Enzo Bortoleto’s weekend best of ninth place came in race two, with 11th place in the opener and 13th position in the third and final contest. The Brazilian departed Snetterton 300 Circuit ninth in the championship, just three points adrift of team-mate Huovinen.
“The championship fight is on, there are only 15 points in it and we’ll be going to Donington trying to win”, said Double R team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt, “Matheus did the best he could with two podiums and it’s great to have all three cars in the championship top 10 at this stage of the season.
“Aleksanteri raced well, it’s a very difficult track to overtake on in F3 but he did a good job and so too did Enzo. There’s a bit of a break now until the last round at Donington, we’ll be preparing as well as we can in the meantime to be in the best shape possible.”
Leist, who was in sensational form in pre-event testing with the fastest time, only just missed out on pole position for race one by a miniscule 0.059 seconds. Lighting up the timing screens with the fastest first and second sectors on his final lap of the session, the Brazilian had to settle for second on the grid for round 19 by the smallest of margins to title rival Ricky Collard.
Maintaining position off the start, the Double R driver stayed closed behind the pole qualifier but racing fell under Safety Car conditions on lap two due to a car off the circuit at the exit of the Esses, which had rolled.
When the action resumed on the fifth tour, Leist wasn’t initially able to stay with the leader but during the second half of the contest he reeled off a series of fastest lap times. In the end, though, he had to be satisfied with second and just missed out on the fastest lap by a mere 0.004 seconds.
Bortoleto and Huovinen began the contest in 12th and 13th respectively and they each gained two places prior to the Safety Car period. Running in 10th and 11th at the re-start, the Finn managed to get ahead of his Double R team-mate on the first lap back at racing speed and after a moment for Quinlan Lall on lap six Huovinen moved up into ninth where he stayed to the flag on lap 15.
Brazilian racer Bortoleto, meanwhile, ended the contest two places behind Huovinen. Having been edged back to the tail of the top 12 on lap five, he then profited from Lall’s incident to climb back into 11th place.
From seventh on the grid in round 20 on Sunday morning, Leist made a good launch but wasn’t able to make up any ground into the first corner – unlike team-mate Huovinen who delivered a superb first lap to climb ahead of the sister Double R car into the top six, having started in ninth place.
Under pressure from Leist, who in turn had title rival Collard tight in his wheeltracks, Huovinen held firm and soaked up all of the attention until the start of lap eight when the Brazilian finally managed to make the breakthrough after getting alongside his team-mate on the run up Senna Straight.
Running wheel-to-wheel, Leist managed to brilliantly take sixth place on the outside line through the right-hander at Riches to importantly put some breathing space between himself and Collard. On lap 10, Huovinen was edged back to eighth by Collard and he stayed there to the flag on lap 16.
Leist, with sixth place, managed to take a point back out of Collard’s series advantage and only just missed out on the fastest lap of the race by four hundredths of a second. Bortoleto, meanwhile, had a largely uneventful race and spent almost the entire 16 lap contest in ninth place. After moving up from 11th spot at the beginning, the South American retained ninth throughout
In the final contest on Sunday afternoon, Leist made a good launch from second on the grid and pressured Collard into Riches but the order remained set thereafter. The two championship rivals were undoubtedly the class of the field as they streaked away from the chasing back, Leist ending the 16 laps just 1.5 seconds shy of the win and with the fastest lap of the race – 1m44.624 seconds.
Huovinen and Bortoleto lined-up together on the sixth row of the grid, in 11th and 12th respectively for Double R, and remained in those positions initially but on lap two the latter was unfortunately edged back to 13th spot.
Under heavy pressure, Huovinen performed well and during the closing stages he swarmed all over the back of Lall’s car to only just miss the top 10 at the finish by a mere 0.3 seconds. In the sister entry, Bortoleto held 13th place all the way to the chequered flag on lap 16.
Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit in the East Midlands will host the final three races of the British F3 season over the weekend 10th/11th September. This coming weekend, 13th/14th August, Double R Racing’s F4 British Championship team will be back on track for the seventh event of its season, at Knockhill Circuit in Scotland.
2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship Driver Standings:2nd Matheus Leist, 423pts8th Aleksanteri Huovinen, 223pts9th Enzo Bortoleto, 220pts
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