The latest report from the last round at Zandvoort F3, How did Vermin Racing fair? read below. Triple Eight only had 1 of our drivers competing that race Karlis Skirmanis, who stuck it out but no points were scored during the race but hopefully next round Triple Eight will be better represented. (News to come)
Qualifying
Once more the battle for the ultimate spot was between the two top drivers this season, the battleground, Zandvoort. Oscar Williams looked incredibly quick throughout practice, but it was his championship rival Arttu Nieminen who would set an early provisional pole lap, with a 1:28.181. For the first time this season Max Hamelink stepped into the cockpit of the F3 car, replacing the absent Jack Smith for this round, continued his impressive show of skills and speed, putting his car 3rd fastest overall, just ahead of Nieminen's team mate, Sammy Salem.
Maxi Junger's return to the F3 series saw him take 5th ahead of Jaap Wagenvoort with the 3rd to 9th covered by just 0.700's and Martin Van T Land rounding out 10th. Oscar left it increasingly late to set a time but when he did he snatched pole by just 0.030, setting a 1:28.151 and adding another pole to his tally.
Race 1
Oscar gets a good get away and moves across to block Nieminen as they approach into the first corner. Max gets an excellent get away and is up along side Nieminen as they go through the corner but on the dirty side loses some grip and Wagenvoort takes 3rd. With everyone cleanly through the first few corners, Maxi lines up a pass on Salem, sweeping around the outside and into 6th, as the pair enter the start finish straight, Salem is tucked into Maxi's slipstream, Maxi goes inside to cover the move, Salem goes for the outside line as the pair go side by side, Maxi squeezes but leaving very little room for Salem, the pair make contact sending both into the gravel trap.
As the race started to level out at the front, with the top 5 being very consistent in maintaining the same gaps. Oscar was absorbing some intense pressure from Nieminen at the very front with the gap being about 0.3 every lap. Further into the pack some of the racing for the minor positions were hotting up. Maxi had worked his way back into 12th and was now eyeing up Ciprian Stoian's 11th place, which he took with little effort and began to draw a gap. Clank Hughes who had been running 6th, loses the rear end of his car at turn 1, spinning and coming to a stop pointing the wrong way, Maxi approaching the scene of Hughes accident, has his own slide on entry to the corner, catching the slide and narrowly avoiding the spun car but dropping Maxi back to 11th back behind Ciprian. It would take Maxi a couple of laps before getting back past for 10th place again.
Oscar and Nieminen still separated by just 0.5, as they have been for almost 15 minutes, showing their pace at Zandvoort to be very evenly matched. Oscar always looked in control of the race. Then either through some bizarre momentary lack of concentration, Oscar's car is sliding off track as the backend just breaks away on a downshift. This gifts Nieminen first place with only around 5 and a half minutes on the clock. Oscar down to 6th behind Mex Jansen who defends hard and both, who had quietly been running not that far behind Max and Wagenvoort for most of the race, staying out of trouble. Oscar hounding Jansen, forces him into a mistake as Jansen locks his brakes and is sent clattering over the curbs sideways on the final lap in the last 3 corners promoting Oscar back to 4th, which would become 3rd as Max let his team mate through on the straight, minimizing the damage to Oscar's champion's hopes. Wagenvoort finished a very solid 2nd having had Max latched onto his gearbox throughout the entire race, but again Nieminen takes another win, increasing his lead for the F3 title.
1 Arttu Nieminen
2 Jaap Wagenvoort
3 Oscar Williams
Race 2
With the reverse grid positions, it was Stoian who would be leading the pack, followed by Salem and Maxi. Stoian running deep is unable to defend the position from Salem who slots into the lead. A bad start from Maxi saw him lose out to Van T Land going into turn 1, Maxi then outbraked himself tagging the rear of the Inforward and setting off a chain reaction as Van T Land collected Douglas Falcon, who veered uncontrollably across the track and back into Maxi, causing a multiple car crash. The beneficiaries being Oscar and Nieminen, avoiding the carnage and moving up from 8th and 10th respectively to 3rd and 4th. An unusual error from Wagenvoort as he outbraked himself into the first corner meant he also avoided all the contact but this put him way down the field. It would not take long for Oscar to catch up to 2nd place Stoian, bringing with him Nieminen and Max. Oscar took the inside line down into turn 1, but Stoian would not yield and the pair make some minor contact as Oscar gets through, but the contact is enough to allow Nieminen to sneak past Oscar and claim the 2nd place. With Stoian losing 2 positions in 1 corner, Max tries to find a way past but the door is slammed shut and Max has to wait a little longer before eyeing another move. Oscar absolutely hounds the rear of Nieminen, darting around in the braking zones to try and distract his rival but Nieminen keeps a cool head under the pressure. Oscar continues to hassle him but runs out wide onto the grass and slams into the barrier dropping down to 17th.
Max tries to overtake Stoian as the pair hurtle down the straight, Max drives the inside line, but is unable to get through as Stoian hangs it around the outside and the pair go side by side for 3 corners with Max having to concede before the banked left. A lap later Max would try the same move again but made it stick, taking 3rd place. Stoian was now into the hands of Jordi Lowijs' Nova, but a slide would relief Stoian from that pressure as Lowijs dropped a place to Tim Draper. Oscar who was now on the back of Dave Southword and following a multi-car battle for 9th as he worked his way up, would retire from race 2 after being unable to avoid the spun car of Van T Land ahead. Maxi's recovery drive was going well until a rig issue started to lose him places ending up just behind Wagenvoort in 9th, Maxi had dropped from 8th to 10th as his hardware worries worsened.
With the two Toto Rosso's 1st and 2nd, Nieminen edged ever closer to his team mate as the half way point is reached, Max maintaining a steady gap behind Nieminen of around 5.5 seconds. Further back and outside the points Mex Jansen and newcomer Martin Jatzek have a minor collision dropping some places and allowing Van T Land to gain a couple of places back. Maxi pulls off the track having to retire as his rig issue is now making him a hazard to other racers. Stoian, having lost more places was now running 6th with Lowijs back on his rear wing, Stoian pulls to the inside line to defend down the straight, then inexplicably locks his brakes and go hurtling off the track at turn 1, freeing up Lowijs and Navayo Klink, as well as allowing Wagenvoort to gain another position in 8th. Lowijs makes a mistake and throws away his promising points and allowing Wagenvoort to slip into 7th. Whilst up ahead it's Clank Hughes who makes it past Draper for 4th and begins to close in on Max, who is nursing his tyres for the finish but stays ahead and takes 3rd. Wagenvoort's recovery drive finishes up with him taking 6th overall. However, it's Salem who wins Race 2 with a well deserved victory but it is Nieminen who extends his lead at the top of the drivers championship due to Oscar's retirement.
1 Sammy Salem
2 Arttu Nieminen
3 Max Hamelink
With dropped points in effect Oscar still has a good chance at the title, but certainly cannot afford many more unlucky races.
Unfortunately due to a few streaming issues there is only Race 2 video footage. which you can watch here:
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