Congratulations to Oscar Williams winning the drivers title.
Congratulations to Toto Rosso on beating Vermin to the Team championship.
Read our Race Report for the final two races of this exciting season. Oscar managed to seal the championship with a brilliant drive and excellent Team work from Max Hamelink and Maxi Junger. Unfortunately we missed out on the Team Championship but read how it all unfolded below. or watch the replay of the race at the bottom of this page.
Qualifying
So for the final time this season the drivers all would enter the combat arena of qualifying. With low grip the times we had seen early on in practice were a long distance away, as the cars were now 2-3 seconds off the pace whilst the track rubbered in. First to set a lap is a new driver to the series Leon De Groot, quickly is topped by Clank Hughes and Tim Omloo. Max Hamelink is soon the first driver into the 1:51s followed immediately by his team mate and title contender Oscar Williams, who then lowers the benchmark time with his next lap to a 1:50.8. Maxi Junger is able to go second at this stage with the track grip still low, which Tim takes impressive advantage of, to post the 3rd fastest time in the tricky conditions. Still out on track with no time set is Arttu Nieminen who had left it relatively late to get on track, with his first flying lap he grabs the provisional pole from Maxi, then improves his time to be the first driver into the 1:49. Sammy Salem finds himself 3rd overall but is outpaced by Jaap Wagenvoort.
Oscar is able to take back the provisional pole with some assistance from Maxi down the back straight as the pair execute a perfect slipstream to give Oscar a bit more straight line speed, however as soon as Oscar is across the line and back in front Nieminen manages to best the lap with a 1:49.506, just .060's faster with less than 3 minutes left in the session. Max impressively puts his car on pole with a 1:49.2 showing his pace as the track's grip seems to be near optimal at this point. Oscar has an absolutely stunning lap and puts in a 1:48.891 with just 54 seconds left on the clock, all eyes are back on Nieminen to see if he can respond to either Vermin driver. Sadly he can only match his previous time and abandons his attempt as soon as he crosses the line.
With a Vermin lock out front row, Oscar returns the favour to Maxi, assisting him down the back straight with a slipstream which is enough to see him also jump ahead of Nieminen with a brilliant lap to take 3rd and see a Vermin 1, 2 ,3. Toto Rosso can only manage 4th and 5th with Clank Hughes being the best Inforward in 6th.
Race 1
With Oscar leading the trio of green cars into turn 1, Max has a quick look into turn 1 on his team mate but then quickly backs out, allowing Oscar to set his pace for this race. Maxi and Nieminen go side by side into turn 1 with Maxi having to go very defensive and managing to retain the position with Nieminen breathing closely down his neck. Hughes adds pressure to Nieminen having passed Salem at the start, lines up Nieminen for a move into the chicane but can't make it through instead the move allows Salem to slip cleanly down the inside of Hughes and into 5th behind his team mate. Further back in the pack the fighting is fierce as always, with Tim Draper battling Martijn Van T Land and managing to squeeze past to make it Toto Rosso 4th, 5th and 6th on track. Tim is able to place his car in 10th with his team mates
Dave Southword and Karlis Skirmanis down in 13th and 16th in a big group of cars all running very close together. Maxi does a brilliant defensive job keeping Nieminen behind him by parking his Vermin in just the right spots every time Nieminen tries to overtake. However the Toto Rosso driver's race pace is slightly quicker he struggles to find a way through for several corners, finally getting a good drive on the back straight to put the pressure on Maxi, who slides a little wide and over the kerb having to yield the place. It's 3 wide into turn 1 as Tim, Falcon and Draper all battle for 8th place, an amazing display of respect as the three make it through the corner unscathed with Tim jumping 2 positions from 10th to 8th. Maxi shows his defensive skills again as Salem is unable to overtake at the chicane after a good drive off the back straight, Salem being tucked up behind Maxi down the straight as the pair go side by side into turn 1, however Maxi again defends the position to retain the place. After some technical issues prior to the race, Karlis is having one of his strongest races to date as he and Wagenvoort have a great battle over 14th place with the Triple Eight remaining in front of the somewhat out of position Wagenvoort. The other Triple Eight of Tim is managing to find great pace ahead overtaking the other Inforward of Van T Land for 7th an impressive display for such a young driver.
Salem is trying to find anyway he can past Maxi at this stage and yet is still unable to faze his countryman into making any big mistakes as their duel is quickly turning into a three car fight with Hughes closing up on the pair and waiting to pounce. De Groot makes a move on Dave for 10th place having raced a good clean race so far and set to take the reverse pole if he can manage to finish in that position. Nieminen has slowly closed up the gap to Max in 2nd but still not able to be close enough to try any real moves, Max pulls to the inside down the straight to break any tow Nieminen may have but he isn't close enough to gain anything by following Max as only 3 minutes remain of race 1. As Max pulls to the inside down the straight again to break the tow, this time mirrored by the Toto Rosso as Nieminen is slightly closer again heading into the final lap of the race, but he is still not close enough to make a move.
Oscar has had a quiet race and managed to pace himself comfortably around 2-3 seconds ahead of Max the entire race but more importantly has won not only an exciting title battle but an exhaustive one as he crosses the line to become the F3 Sprint Series Champion. Max brings home his car in 2nd just ahead of the worthy runner up this season Nieminen. Both drivers have driven to exceptional levels this season and both would be worthy of the championship but it's Oscar who gets that honour this year. Maxi crosses the line in 4th after another excellent race. With the drivers title now won, who would win the Teams championship?
Race 2
It was series debutant who found himself on pole for race 2 with the reverse grid order, still an impressive showing from the new driver. With Douglas Falcon and Van T Land behind him the pressure would be on to keep the position into turn 1 A brilliant launch off the line sees De Groot pulling a good gap by the first corner but a poor exit would not only allow Falcon past, but force De Groot to have to defend from the fast starting Tim. Car clattering down the inside at turn 1 collects Nieminen and Maxi, with Oscar and Max capitalising Van T Land out braking Tim takes back 3rd . Tim soon finds himself sandwiched in a bunch of cars after trying a move around the outside of Van T Land but loses the rear when Salem tags the rear of the Triple Eight which lights the “touch paper” triggering an explosion of accidents behind as cars slowed and tried to avoid others. Oscar is one of the biggest victims of all the action along with Ciprian Stoian who is sent sliding off the road. Back to the front De Groot was keeping on the pace of Falcon and looking increasingly racey pulling out a small gap over Van T Land, then mounting a challenge on Falcon racing side by side through turn 1. 2 and 3 before re taking the lead. The battle did allow Van T Land to latch back on to to the pair with Max and Nieminen also closing in on the lead.
Meanwhile, Oscar was now slowly working his way back through the pack in 9th behind Dave. Van T Land makes his move on Falcon and breezes past for 2nd Max also has a look on Falcon but has to back out into the chicane, Nieminen can sniff the position but also has to back out but sticks his car to the Vermin's gearbox, with Max defending hard down the inside Nieminen with the slipstream is forced to go around the long way round but does manage to get through. Oscar now having caught up to Maxi is let through by his team mate to attack Salem in 6th being clearly faster at this point of the race. With Nieminen and Oscar being the fastest drivers at this stage they both gain places down the straight with Nieminen now sitting 3rd and Oscar gaining having taken Salem into turn 1 for 6th place. Salem tries to retake the place but a bad exit off the 4th corner drops him back within striking distance of Maxi, who drives it around the outside with a fantastic move.
Sadly for Falcon the last 3 or 4 laps have seen him losing more and more positions, Max is able to overtake with relative ease and a mistake from Falcon allows Oscar to run past him down the straight and into turn 1 around the outside, with his rival Nieminen also making a move at the exact same time on Van T Land clutching 2nd place and sets off after De Groot, this race is a testament to Nieminen's never say never attitude to racing and speed and is soon on the back of De Groot within a lap and a half. With another brilliantly executed move Nieminen is into the lead going around the outside. Max manages to pass Van T Land for 3rd at the same time into the chicane, a twitch from Van T Land would also allow Oscar to move into 4th. Chasing down 2nd, the Vermin pair are soon onto the back of De Groot and some hard defending from him forces Max to clatter across the kerb at the chicane, letting Oscar through as they hurtle down the start finish straight. Oscar moves to the inside just to unsettle De Groot, which seems to work as the new driver out brakes himself into turn 1, Oscar with better traction is able to ride around the outside of him and take 2nd, also with Max following closely dropping De Groot to 4th within 3 corners, and fighting Max on the exit costs him another place to Van T Land before the next corner. Nieminen has been setting fastest laps of the race however and would be a tall ask to catch now more than 3 seconds down the road.
Tim and Hughes come together at the chicane after Tim tries a move onto Falcon, Hughes tries for the gap in the middle of the pair but Tim closes the gap causing a huge accident and sprawling his car into the barriers and into retirement after another good showing on track. Salem and Maxi battle it out over 9th coming very close to contact and a bit of rubber exchange as the pair rub side pod to wheel,Salem gets through. Wagenvoort touches the grass and this puts him into a spin and out of the top 10 as Dave takes the place whilst Wagenvoort recovers. De Groot drops down the pack after a spin of his own, proving once again the tyres are on the wear limit. Entering the final lap it's a 4 way battle for 5th place between Falcon, Hughes, Salem and Maxi who are having side by side battles and all within 1 second of each other on track. Hughes just edging his nose ahead of this pack as Falcon refuses to give up the place as they are almost touching elbows through 4 or 5 corners, Maxi manages to just edge out Salem who again is tucked back in behind ready to dart out down the back straight as the four cars thunder down towards the chicane once again with Maxi just a nose ahead of Salem comes off the chicane and into the final corner picking up 7th with Hughes just pipping Falcon for 5th.
But it's Nieminen who manages a comfortable victory in Race 2, which also seals Toto Rosso a well deserved Team Championship by 8 points. Oscar finishes 2nd with Max once again on the podium in 3rd .
This brings to a close one of the hardest fought championships we have had, not just on track but mentally off track and having to work hard as a team. The competitive bar was raised so much higher this season not just by Arttu and Oscar but everyone on the grid and it was interesting to see so many battles between drivers. Whatever the future holds now in terms of championships this is one that I think will be remembered.
Thank you to Trout for organizing this and everyone involved in making the racing fair and competitive all season.
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