British F3 - Round 7 - Spa-Francorchamps

[strider]

Judging by the number of posts and views people on here lose interest in BF3 when it races abroad, but the blue riband event is coming up at Spa-Francorchamps next weekend and I've put some text in bold below that might change your minds.

The largest international Formula 3 grid of the season will gather at Spa-Francorchamps next week when the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series joins up with the FIA Formula 3 International Trophy for a trio of races at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.

A field of 29 drivers from 15 different nations is expected at Spa. Among the anticipated highlights is the return of a former British F3 Champion, Marko Asmer, and the prospect of the current British championship leader, Carlin’s Felipe Nasr, going head to head with Prema Powerteam’s Roberto Merhi, who leads both the FIA F3 Trophy and the F3 Euroseries.

Further excitement comes with the news that the Spa 40-minute feature race on Sunday morning is to be shown live throughout Europe by Motors TV, in addition to the customary edited-highlights TV package screened in the UK on Channel 4 and across Europe via satellite.

Volkswagen driver Nasr, 18, leads the field to Belgium fresh from his twin wins at Paul Ricard in France last weekend, which have brought the Brazilian’s victory tally for the season to seven, two of them at the unfortunate expense of his unlucky team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, who lost out through no fault of his own.

Nasr is now 104 points clear of his closest challenger and, though he cannot secure the crown at Spa, a further haul of points would make the maths even more of a headache for his rivals, who are led by his team-mate, Carlos Huertas.

The Carlin, Fortec, Sino Vision and T-Sport teams are all due to field their regular squads in Belgium, with Hitech running two cars in the International class; team regular Pietro Fantin is joined for the weekend by Spain’s Fernando Monje. Double R’s pairing of Pipo Derani and Scott Pye will meanwhile benefit from the drafting-in of Estonian Marko Asmer, who won the championship with Hitech Racing in 2007.

Top Brit William Buller heads for Spa fresh from scoring his maiden British F3 race victory. The Mercedes-powered Fortec driver has extensive experience of the majestic 4.3-mile circuit, having raced there in Formula BMW and in F3 last year: “I’ve a good bit of track knowledge around there,” said the Northamptonshire-based Ulsterman, “and I am looking forward to it. It’s probably my favourite track and it offers so many places to pass - you can slipstream down the straights when there are other cars to tow against, the chicanes, the first corner. I can’t wait.”

While catching Nasr for the championship lead might be a tall order for him, Buller is one of five drivers bidding for a championship top-three slot who are separated by just 29 points with 12 races remaining. The others are Huertas and Jazeman Jaafar - both of whom are also in the FIA Trophy hunt - Kevin Magnussen and Lucas Foresti.

Spa’s inclusion as part of the FIA Formula 3 International Trophy has attracted the Signature, Prema and Vat n Amersfoorteams. Prema’s Roberto Mehri has a commanding lead in the Trophy after the Mercedes-backed driver won both Hockenheim rounds and scored a second-place finish at Pau in France. The Spaniard’s team-mate and countryman Daniel Juncadella is his closest points rival.

Prema will field a third car, for Italy’s Raffaele Marciello, while Signature will have a quartet of Dallaras in action: Germans Daniel Abt and Marco Wittmann will drive, alongside Colombian Carlos Munoz and Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor. Dutch driver Hannes van Asseldonk will pilot the Van Amersfoot Racing entry.

Spa-Francorchamps timetable (CET)

Thursday 28 July:
10:45 - 11:15 free practice 1
16:00 - 16:30 free practice 2
Friday 29 July:
09:50 - 10:20 Qualifying
13:15 Round 19 (30 mins)
16:50 Round 20 (20 mins)
Saturday 30 July:
12:40 Round 21 (40 mins)

TV schedule Round 21 LIVE Motors TV UK 11:50 BST, Motors TV Europe/France 12:50 CET
Highlights Channel 4, 0700 6 August; Motors TV UK 1516 6 August + repeats

Provisional championship standings

British Formula 3 International
1 Felipe Nasr / BRA 237 points
2 Carlos Huertas / COL 133
3 Lucas Foresti / BRA 127
4 Jazeman Jaafar / MAS 115
5 Kevin Magnussen / DEN 113
6 Will Buller / GBR 106
7 Rupert Svendsen-Cook / GBR 104
8 Harry Tincknell / GBR 64
9 Pietro Fantin / BRA 61
10= Riki Christodoulou / GBR & Antonio Felix da Costa / POR 51 etc

British Formula 3 Rookie
1 Bart Hylkema / NED 214
2 Kotaro Sakurai / JPN 213

FIA Formula 3 International Trophy
1 Roberto Merhi / ESP 68
2 Daniel Juncadella / ESP 35
3 Daniel Abt / GER 32
4 Marco Wittman / GER 25
5 Carlos Munoz / COL 16
6 Laurens Vanthoor / BEL 15 etc

For further information visit www.formula3.co

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by strider

Further excitement comes with the news that the Spa 40-minute feature race on Sunday morning is to be shown live throughout Europe by Motors TV, in addition to the customary edited-highlights TV package screened in the UK on Channel 4 and across Europe via satellite.

Great news about some live TV coverage! Wonder when the last time British F3 was shown live?

I should point out that that text is wrong, as it's on Saturday the race is live... just in case some people skim-read this and went to tune in on Sunday...

The Motors TV website is now showing 11:30 BST as the start time.

[strider]

That timetable is based on the official press release and the times are in CET, which is an hour ahead of BST.

11:30 BST on Saturday for MotorsTV in the UK makes much more sense because the race is due to start at 11:40 BST!

[jondownunder]

Though given Motors, I always set up Sky+ to start recording at least 10 minutes before their scheduled times to be sure of catching all the build-up coverage!

[Valker]

Where can I find the entry list?

[strider]

There isn't a formal entry list that I can find, but they are all listed in this article.

[Campbell]

Does anybody know which are the drivers eligible for british points at Spa?
Euroseries racers I suppose not, but what about Monje, Asmer and Asseldonk?

And what about the chances of British F-3 drivers?
At Hockenheim and Spa it was easy for the Euro racers but, frankly, the
opponents were not the best. Huertas and Jaafar are limited drivers, and Derani didn't show anything in this season.
I guess Nasr, Magnussen, Merhi and Wittmann will fight for main positions in
Belgium, but I really don't know.

[Campbell]

Originally Posted by strider

There isn't a formal entry list that I can find, but they are all listed in this article.

Entry List, based on the text:

Carlin - Nasr, Huertas, Jaafar, Magnussen, Svendsen-Cook, Harvey
Fortec - Foresti, Buller, Tincknell, Ilyas
Hitech - Fantin, Monje, Sakurai*
Double R - Pye, Derani, Asmer
T-Sport - Idafar, Cunha, Hylkema
Sino Vision - Lloyd, Fong
Prema - Mehri, Juncadella, Marciello
Signature - Wittmann, Abt, Vanthoor, Munoz
Van Amersfoot - Van Asseldonk

[Campbell]

"At Hockenheim and Spa"

Of course, I wanted to say Pau instead of Spa.

[Valker]

Any idea if van Asseldonk is driving a German cup car or a F308?

Qualifying top-10:

Merhi 2:17.438
Asmer 2:18.502
Wittmann 2:18.800
Munoz 2:19.289
Buller 2:19.692
Foresti 2:19.993
Marciello 2:20.249
Derani 2:21.253
Vanthoor 2:21.398
Lloyd 2:22.582

[Valker]

Van Asseldonk 4th in race 2 and did the fastest lap too! Shows the high standards of German cup. New car and new tyre for both team and driver but still a great result. In ATS F3 Cup van Asseldonk is usually around 8th place.

Does anyone know what happened to Merhi in race2? Dropped to the back of the pack in 1st lap and managed to climb to 15th only.

[bella]

according to autosport, merhi and jaafar had a bit of drama

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93488

[tux]

LIVE on Motors TV now.

[skells22]

got some news about a DQ and the driver that got in the bad books was Fantin. Magnussen was saved from a pen as it was deemed he was avoiding a crash (unlike Fantin for casuing one). there is still some checking on the 1st lap crash with these 2 guys Cunha & Lloyd.

[strider]

Originally Posted by Valker

Any idea if van Asseldonk is driving a German cup car or a F308?

He was in a current car.

Quick run-down.

Free practice report.

Qualifying report. The weather conditions were mixed and the faster times were set at the end of the session by those who had switched to slicks.

Race 1 report. A comfortable win for Merhi, who was very impressive throughout. PremaPower are a very good team and have raced at Spa with BF3 before, so know the score. William Buller win the BF3 category.

Race 2 report. A consolation win for Kevin Magnussen who was on pole for this reversed grid race and never looked after making a clean start.

Race 3 report. Another dominant drive by Merhi. Buller again won the BF3 category, whilst Nasr and Magnussen completed the podium.

It was great to see 28 cars on the grid. The best entry of any F3 race this year so far.

[strider]

Anyone want to say what the TV coverage was like, or were you all watching F1 or something else?

[strider]

You're a miserable lot! It seems no-one watched the live TV coverage from Spa.

Well, I recorded it and have given it a critical viewing. It was actually very good. David Addison made a good live commentator and Hailey Coxon did a few interviews. For some reason the pit lane cameras weren't up to scratch, but, but the ones out on the circuit were excellent.

Roberto Merhi was outstanding and looked to be in a class of his own. BF3 2007 champion, Marko Asmer, started 2nd, but dropped back to 6th at the flag.

William Buller fought through to 3rd and was the leading BF3 driver for the second time in the weekend.

There was non-stop slipstreaming and overtaking along the Kemmel straight. That's between Raidillon at the top of the hill after Eau Rouge and Les Combes.

Both Felipe Nasr and Kevin Magnussen were particularly good there as they came through from lowly grid positions. Kevin was ahead for a while, but then Felipe managed to get a double tow and slip past both another car and him, but Kevin remained close for the rest of the race. Even when he has a bad weekend, which Spa was for him, Felipe manages to score more points than his immediate rivals, so his lead just grows and grows.

They didn't show the podium ceremony, but the reason was that it took an age to get the drivers up there. We saw plenty of scenic shots of Spa to fill in the time. It really is a very special circuit and place. I am glad I saved up to go there for the meeting, even if the weather was better at home!

The next round is at Rockingham at the beginning of September. It was there last year that Nasr scored his first and dominant win, which is a good omen for him, but I don't think Magnussen will let him have it all his own way.

[jondownunder]

I was busy and could only watch the chaotic start, but recorded it then backed it up on DVD as I usually do with these things. I've since watched the C4 highlights, so probably won't bother watching the live coverage now. But, I agree about what I saw, David Addison always does a solid job commentating.

[strider]

For some reason I don't like David Addison doing voice-overs on recorded programmes. He's very professional and has all the facts at his finger tips, but to me it sounds as though he's just rolling off another well-rehearsed commentary and not really that interested.

Whereas when he was commentating live at Spa he had to think on his feet; it was spontaneous stuff and all the knowledge came into its own. I watched the race partly from the Media room, which was simply showing the circuit CCTV footage and that was hopeless. They didn't even show the proper live timing.

PS You're right, the first lap was chaotic. The facts that it was Spa and the grid was a bit jumbled up made it much more interesting to watch.