FIA F3000 Championship Round Four - A1 Ring Austria 

The Arden team recorded a historic 1^st and 2^nd at the latest round of the FIA F3000 Championship in Austria.  Tomas Enge led every lap from pole position to give the Banbury based team its first win in this category and was accompanied by Bjorn Wirdheim on the podium in second position after a storming drive from 5^th position on the grid.  This result elevates Tomas Enge and Arden into the lead of the Driver and Team Championships. 

Tomas dominated the first session of qualifying, recording his pole time on his first set of tyres which was never bettered despite Giorgio Pantano coming within 0.01 secs in the closing minutes of the second session.  After initially finding his feet in the first session, Bjorn was unlucky to qualify 5^th, a mere 0.25 secs from pole after encountering traffic on his final run. 

Tomas converted his grid position into a first corner lead and was soon joined at the front by Bjorn who made a great start to be 4^th into turn 1 followed by a bold move on both the Coloni cars of Toccacelo and Pantano at turn 2.  The young Swede then closed in on Tomas and for the first 10 laps the Arden cars circulated with less than a second between them.  

By half distance Tomas had managed to pull out a slight lead as Bjorn could not afford to make any mistakes that would allow the closely following Mario Haberfeld to overtake.  On lap 20, of the 35 lap race, Tomas recorded the fastest lap as he continued to pull away at the front.  Bjorn had also managed to put some breathing space between himself and Haberfeld who in turn was coming under increasing pressure from Giorgio Pantano.  Tomas eventually crossed the finish line 3.7 secs ahead of his team mate to compete a perfect race. 

Tomas Enge commented "I was very happy with the car in qualifying and was immediately very confident.  I got a lot of traffic in the second session which prevented me from going quicker otherwise I am sure I could have improved my first session time.  My start was OK and in the first part of the race I had Bjorn pushing me very hard.  As the fuel load became lighter the balance got better and better and I was able to pull out a comfortable margin.  I am delighted to be able to give the Arden Team their first win which puts us right back up there in the Championship." 

Bjorn Wirdheim commented "During the first qualifying session I felt my way into the circuit and after a couple of small changes for the second session, I pushed really hard.  I was actually a little disappointed to be only 5^th on the grid as potentially, I should have been higher if I had not come across a slow car on my fastest lap.  My starts have been getting better and better and I managed to take advantage of a bit of confusion between the Coloni cars.  After that, I pushed as hard as I could and initially could see that I was a bit faster than Tomas although I still had Mario very close to me.  By about half distance, I had managed to put a bit of a gap between myself and Mario as I could see Pantano was now pushing him from behind.  I was then able to concentrated on being consistent and am delighted to record my first podium finish in what is a great team result". 

Christian Horner commented "This has been a great day for the team and just reward for all the hard work over the winter months.  Both Tomas and Bjorn did a superb job and I am sure that both drivers will win more races in the near future.  This result puts us right back into contention in the Driver and Team Championships and goes some way to make up for the disappointment of not winning in Brazil.  I am sure that both drivers will take a lot of confidence from this race which is exactly what you need for our next event in Monaco."              

Drivers' Championship

 Teams' Championship Points