Category: British F3

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British F3 – Monger: We’re making steps forward

Billy Monger was satisfied with his Saturday work after missing out on pole position and taking his fourth podium of the season at an unsettled Silverstone.

Monger took two pole positions in wet conditions at Donington Park three weeks ago and feels he could have secured another one in a wet Silverstone qualifying in the morning.

£The progress we’ve been making in the last few rounds has been good, we got the double pole at Donington and today in qualifying we had potential for pole. I lost about six tenths on the data as I caught a backmarker on my best lap so that was a pole chance.

£The fact that I know that in my heart of hearts I can get on the front row is a really good showing for the improvements I’ve made. Hopefully tomorrow we can pray for some rain.”

Despite two poles and a podium at Donington, Monger left the East Midlands frustrated after missing out on victory in all three races.

The man from Kent was less annoyed at being denied in the first half of this weekend

“At Donington I had double pole and I was the fastest by two tenths in every session so the fact that we didn’t win a race really, really annoyed me and really wound me up.

“Qualifying today without that backmarker, we could have been in a different position and that race could have been different but if I’m honest, we didn’t have the pace of that front two. There’s nothing wrong with that, it just shows that we need to work harder overnight to find some pace for tomorrow.”

With Carlin teammate Nicolai Kjaergaard now out of the title race after his DNF and Linus Lundqvist’s seventh victory of the season, Monger gave short shrift to the idea that there was ever any agreement between the teammates to help the Dane.

“It was always every man for himself. I’m here to race and I’m here to win races and I don’t think that Nicolai would want to win a championship with my help, he’d want to because he was the best over the season. Unfortunately Linus has been the most consistent. Nicolai has had bad luck along the way, overall it has been a good battle for the title between them two and I’m sure Nicolai will come out tomorrow and finish strongly.”

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British F3 – Lundqvist: We’ve put Donington behind us

Linus Lundqvist says he and his Double R team have forgotten about an awful Donington Park weekend with pole position at the British F3 Silverstone Shootout.

While Lundqvist has a Championship lead of 50 points over Nicolai Kjaergaard, a terrible round in the East Midlands saw him qualify 14th and secure finishes of 9th and 15th coupled with a DNF.

“We proved at Rockingham earlier this year that we were quick in the wet and we are happy to prove that again today.

“It was a really exciting session, the car was really good and I am happy with my performance especially going into this weekend with questions about how we would perform after Donington, but we have put that one behind us and came into this one with a clear mind.”

While it would be easy to look to score good points and not worry about winning in the name of safeguarding the Championship, Lundqvist won’t be doing maths in the cockpit.

“I don’t try to focus on where Nicolai is at, I’m at the front and that is all that matters. We want to finish this year on a high with more wins and that will definitely be the target for the first race regardless of whether it is wet or dry.”

Lundqvist shrugged off his wet weather struggles at Donington to take charge of qualifying on Saturday morning.

“It’s always a bit tricky in the wet, especially when it’s a drying track because the speed you can carry differs from lap to lap and you know towards the end you can push more but you don’t want to overheat the tyres too much. I got into a good rhythm, set a quicker lap and then a few cool down laps before pushing again.”

The Swede was happy with the feel of his Double R Tatuus machine and feels that was a contributing factor to a relatively big gap by BRDC British F3 standards.

“Towards the end, it was the second to last lap that I set my best time so the track was constantly drying. It was four tenths between me and the guy in second, it was good to feel comfortable from lap one and be able to push for the rest of the session. We spoke about tyre pressures and getting into the mindset of cooling the tyres if you feel them getting too hot. Everyone did a good job.”

 

IMAGE: Jakob Ebrey via www.britishf3.com

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British F3 – Championship leader Lundqvist takes final qualifying pole of the season at Silverstone

Double R’s Linus Lundqvist took the final qualifying pole position of the season in tricky conditions at Silverstone, while his title rival Nicolai Kjaergaard managed fourth.

A topsy-turvy start saw Kush Maini set the initial pace before Billy Monger and Tom Gamble took their turns at the top of the standings at the early stages of the session.

Lundqvist and Double R flexed their muscles from the middle of the session, and the Swede proved difficult to usurp from top spot.

Monger would later set two purple sectors before losing three seconds in the final sector on his way to second for Carlin Racing, with Gamble eventually third ahead of Kjaergaard.

Kjaergaard – who needs to put together a near-perfect weekend to steal the championship from Lundqvist – struggled all session and languished for much of the session in the lower reaches of the top 10.

Lundqvist has a 50 point lead over Kjaergaard with just three races remaining.

Clement Novolak will start fifth on his return from injury ahead of Manuel Maldonado. Ayrton Simmons goes from seventh with Krish Mahadik, Hampus Ericsson and Jamie Chadwick completing the top ten.

 

Image: Jakob Ebrey

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British F3 – Monger: I want to be judged as a racing driver

Billy Monger says he wants to be judged as a racing driver only after missing out on two British F3 victories on his return to Donington Park.

Monger had qualified on pole position for Saurdays wet Race One before a lock up saw him slip back into sixth.

He would go on to recover to fourth, before setting the fastest lap in Race Two to earn pole for the final race of the day.

Another lock up when leading from teammate Nicolai Kjaergaard cost him three places, before fellow Carlin driver Jamie Caroline broke his suspension to leave Monger third.

Despite podiums and good pace on his first return to the scene of his life-changing accident a year ago, Monger was not satisfied.

“It could have been more,” the 19-year-old began.

“I’ve been the fastest driver in all conditions this weekend, fastest in the wet on Thursday, qualifying pole on Saturday and the fastest lap earlier.

“It’s such a frustrating time as a driver when you know that the speed you have is quicker than anyone else and a couple of mistakes cost you the results you deserve.”

Monger made no excuses for not converting those poles into victories.

“I have only myself to blame. In race one, I locked up and went on the grass and it was the same again today, I was in the lead and locked up early on at the chicane and cost myself three positions.

“As a racing driver, which is what I want to be seen as, the performances in the races this weekend were not up to the standards that I need to be hitting. I have to accept that and make sure I come back at Silverstone stronger.”

Monger is looking forward to the British F3 Championship’s return to Silverstone in three weeks’ time, where he was also quick back in June.

“Obviously coming back to Donington was a bit of a challenge as everyone knows, but my performances weren’t good enough in the race. I know that I’m capable of putting it on pole position, I’ve had two this weekend so I want to keep them coming and get the results I deserve in the races.”

With a lot of the build-up to this weekend centring on Monger’s accident last year, he insists that once he got back into the car that previous events weren’t on his mind.

“This weekend I haven’t thought about it at all. Obviously that’s a good thing. I’ve shown (that it hasn’t affected me) in the way that I have driven this weekend with the speed I’ve had.

“But for a few mistakes, we should have had two wins. I’ll have to take that on the chin and not get too down about it, I have work to do at Silverstone.”

 

IMAGE: Jamie Sheldrick/Spacesuit Media

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British F3 – Kjaergaard reignites British F3 title race

Nicolai Kjaergaard took another victory in race three at Donington Park to spark new life into the British F3 championship, with three races left at Silverstone in three weeks’ time.

Kjaergaard’s second victory completed a clean sweep for Carlin after Sun Yue Yang’s reverse grid race two win in another race that was punctuated by a long safety car period.

Krish Mahadik capped a strong weekend with another podium in second to move to fourth in the championship standings, while polesitter Billy Monger was a disappointed third after a mistake from the lead dropped him back.

Jamie Caroline broke his suspension when running second behind Kjaergaard, apparently on a kerb, to effectively cut the race to a four lap sprint.

Little changed as Kjaergaard stroked it home to complete his objective of “postponing” the championship, while Monger couldn’t make inroads on a resolute Mahadik.

Championship leader Lundqvist was only 11th, meaning the gap that was 111 points going into the weekend is now just 50 points after a challenging Donington Park experience.

Tom Gamble, who was stripped of second place in race two because of issues with nuts and bolts in his engine, suffered more engine problems and could only manage 17th after contact with Kush Maini earned him a 5.5s penalty. Maini meanwhile had a miserable 18th birthday weekend with a DNF in race two and 16th in race three.

Caroline would later be disqualified for failure to comply with double waved yellow flags.

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British F3 – Sun Yue Yang the shining light in a crazy race two

Sun Yue Yang was the eventual winner of a race two that saw a red flag and championship leader Linus Lundqvist involved in a race-ending accident at the subsequent restart.

Yang was the beneficiary from a full reverse grid to start from pole position but in the initial staging of the race he lost his lead as the electric Tom Gamble leapt from sixth into the lead.

The Chinese driver was handed a reprieve when Manuel Maldonado brought the red flag out for an incident at McLean’s on lap one, resulting in a full race restart.

A ten-minute delay ensued, and Yang made no mistake with his second start to lead away despite another Gamble rocket.

The same cannot be said for Arvin Esmaeili. The Swede’s Douglas car was spun across the circuit and fired onto the racing line for the first corner, and the ensuing chaos claimed four victims.

Alongside Esmaeili Jusuf Owega was hit, while Kush Maini’s rear suspension was damaged and Linus Lundqvist continued his bad weekend when he was collected in the same accident.

If Lundqvist outscored Nicolai Kjaergaard by five points he would have won the British F3 title with a weekend to spare, instead after a disappointing Saturday he has lost 32 points this weekend to his nearest rival, meaning he now cannot confirm the title until Silverstone in three weeks’ time.

That brought the Safety Car out for five laps and by the time it peeled into the pits there were only five minutes of racing left.

Gamble had enough time to depose Double R’s Pavan Ravishankar from second on the penultimate lap but couldn’t make an impact on Yang.

Yesterday’s polesitter Billy Monger will start from pole position after taking the fastest  lap over the first two races. Nicolai Kjaergaard was 12th after being held up by the second-first lap antics, although he will start third due to his quickest lap.

 

CREDIT: JAKOB EBREY via BritishF3.com

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British F3 – Saturday reaction: Kjaergaard wants to “postpone” Lundqvist’s title charge

Nicolai Kjaergaard took the spoils in British F3’s Saturday race at Donington Park for Carlin Motorsport, while teammate and polesitter Billy Monger hit strife early in the race.

Jamie Caroline was second ahead of Double R’s Krish Mahadik, while Monger battled back to claim fourth from Kush Maini and Ayrton Simmons.

Manuel Maldonado was seventh ahead of series leader Linus Lundqvist, who climbed from a lowly 14th on the grid.

Kjaergaard says that all he can do is keep taking points away from Lundqvist, starting with Race two tomorrow and praised the speed of his Carlin team.

“It is certainly the best I can do, the start went to plan and we led from start to finish. We have shown all weekend we have the pace, it was mega in the race with me and Caroline (Jamie) being really fast compared to the field. That shows how good the Carlin car is and it’s promising for Sunday.

The race was run in greasy conditions with the elements having been changeable all weekend, tomorrow’s forecast is similarly as uncertain. That does not faze the Dane

“We’ll see how the track conditions are tomorrow but we have shown that we are fast in the dry and the wet. If it is wet then it will make race two really interesting. We’ll see what happens in Race Two but I am aiming for another win tomorrow.

“It was a drying track so it was hard to know where to go. You had to keep going and keep pushing as there was more and more grip throughout the session. That was the difficult part because when you’re leading you don’t want to push too hard and go off so you have feel your way forward, whereas Jamie had a bit of a gauge because he could see where I was and whether there was more grip or not.”

With Lundqvist having held a seemingly unassailable 111-point lead coming into the weekend, Kjaergaard has cut the deficit by 22 points to 89 and hasn’t given up on the title with five rounds to go.

“We can only keep going like this and hopefully Linus won’t be too close to us, so let’s see how far we can push the championship. I want to at least postpone it until Silverstone.”

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British F3 Reaction: Kjaergaard relieved to get back to winning ways

Nicolai Kjaergaard was relieved to return to the top step of the podium to complete a strong weekend at Brands Hatch.

Kjaergaard’s win backs up a third place in Race One and an impressive rise to ninth in the reverse grid Race Two.

The Dane led home Carlin teammate Jamie Caroline for a Carlin 1-2, while championship leader Linus Lundqvist maintained a healthy advantage with third place.

Kjaergaard was quick to praise his Carlin team after ending a run of one podium finish in six races.

“Carlin have had mega pace all year and prepared a fantastic car, it’s great to be back at the top step of the podium after two average weekends. I’m really, really pleased.

“The start was good enough and after that all I had to do was a decent job and it’s difficult to overtake, don’t make a mistake and stay consistent.”

Despite a 111-point deficit to Lundqvist, Kjaergaard says there is still motivation for the rest of the season.

“Obviously we want to do as well as we can at Donnington and that means wins. I can’t control what he does, but I’m going to try and win as much as possible as I still have second place to play for.”

 

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BRITISH F3 ROUND-UP: Caroline’s sweet victory makes it two from four

Jamie Caroline’s dominant display ensured that he continued his winning return to Carlin with victory in Race One at Brands Hatch.

He led home Double R’s Linus Lundqvist and Nicolai Kjaergaard, the former extending his championship lead to 125 points, while Billy Monger was fourth.

Sun Yue Yang made it four Carlin cars in the top five ahead of Kush Maini in sixth, with last year’s winner Krish Mahadik edging out Manuel Maldonado, Tom Gamble and Sasskorn Chaimongkol.

Caroline, who’s replacing the injured Clement Novalak, was delighted with his second win in four, and praised his relationship with Carlin.

“It’s a shame we didn’t start the season! It’s been great to link up with Carlin again, every time I come into the weekend it’s done to me because the car will be good, it adds a little pressure to do well.

“Quick teammates push me on a little bit, obviously I’m here as a sub for Clement (Novolak, who has a broken thumb) so I am trying my best to do a better job than them really. I wouldn’t say I’m doing  much better job but I’m doing as good a job as I can given that I’ve not had as much time in the car its my second weekend in F3, we got a race win at Spa albeit a reverse grid win but a win’s a win.”

After winning from eighth at Spa in the reverse grid race, Caroline was happier with a more traditional route to the flag, and credited an aggressive formation lap build for building a three-second lead early on in the race.

“Here a lights to flag win always feels a bit better, after all these years it’s great to be driving for Carlin again, two wins in two events isn’t bad. I got a lot of heat in my tyres, I’ve never worked tyres harder and I was knackered after that! I pushed like I was on a qually lap from the off, got the gap and then it was about maintaining that gap and looking after the car.

£I wish this was until the end of the season but I think it’s until whenever he’s fit enough to come back in, it may be Donnington clashes with his Euro programme, fingers crossed I can get something together for then.”

After a difficult Spa two weeks again, Kjaergaard was relieved to be back to form this weekend.

“It was great to get back on the podium after such a long time, I’d have preferred P1 or P2 after starting second but we got on the podium and the fastest lap, which is important for the Race Three grid.

“There’s still second on the table and I want to finish the season as well as I can.”

Linus Lundqvist had earlier pledged to go all out for the victory despite a huge points lead, but was satisfied with second place on Saturday.

“I wouldn’t say that I gave up the win after qualifying (fourth) but around Brands it is hard to overtake. There wasn’t going to be much chances of moves unless someone made a mistake, we made a good start and got to second on old tyres while the Carlin boys were on new ones.

“I’ll take another podium and extending the championship lead.”

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Monger – Motorsport is as safe it can be right now

Billy Monger feels that global motorsport is as safe as it can be in the present climate and that you “can never predict everything” when it comes to the issue of safety.

Monger lost both of his legs in a freak British F4 accident at Donnington Park last year and praised the work done by authorities to make the sport as safe as possible.

“Motorsport is as safe as it can be at the moment, the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make it safer, there’s been so much pioneered over the years that if we were racing with the standards that we had back in the 80s and 90s it would be worse, we’re in a much better place now.

“There’s still stuff that you can improve on, with my accident they’ve made changes to the F4 cars so that hopefully the same thing that happened to me won’t happen again,  we can do our best to try and eliminate everything.”

Monger thanked well-wishers for their continued support, and said that they played a big part in getting him through the ordeal after his accident.

“The support I’ve had has been crazy, I can fault it and it’s been overwhelmingly good and I only hope that others in this situation get the support I got because the amount of support I got after what happened to me really helped me pull through.”

The 19-year-old from Reigate qualified third on the grid for Saturday’s British F3 race at Brands Hatch, and says that the infamous “leggie” celebration – drinking champagne from his prosthetic leg in a reference to Daniel Ricciardo’s “shoey”, may return after it debuted at Spa.

“I said to the team that if I win this weekend then they’ve all got it drink out of it, not just me so that’s the goal to get everyone drinking out of my leg. I don’t want to overuse it but it will come out again, but I’d love to do it while winning.”

Monger says that the celebration came about after a chat with an ex-soldier wounded while on tour.

“The leggy came about as I’ve recently spent a lot of time with some ex-military people, one in particular told me that he sometimes drinks out of his leg when he gets drunk, so I thought that “I’ve never tried it, why not?”.

“The podium at Spa was a great result, it just popped into my to do it with some champagne on the podium. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, it’s a first for me.”

 

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