2001 Round 3 Race report FIA Formula 3000 International Championship

April 28 BARCELONA Catalunya more info Spain RACC (div. Esportiva) Av. Diagonal 687 08028 Barcelona, E Tel : +3493 495 50 35 Fax : +3493 448 23 38, Mail: motorsport@racc.es

By G. Venkat Ganeshan

The leaders Mark Webber and Justin Wilson came to the circuit de Catalunya to increase their lead over their rivals but the Czech driver Tomas Enge had other ideas. The Nordic driver, team mate of Justin Wilson took the lead in the first corner from Wilson, who was on pole. He never looked back as he led a high-speed procession of what turned out to be a dull and mundane race.

With this win, the Czech driver moves to within one point from his team mate, Wilson. Wilson was on course for a win when he registered pole in this narrow track, as overtaking was highly impossible. However, Wilson lost his qualifying advantage as he lost the first and second place to his team mate and Bas Leinders.

The race itself was a boring one, with no driver trying to pass each other as they maintained their track positions with utter discipline. Mario Haberfeld finished fourth ahead of lonely-placed David Saelens in fifth. Brazilian driver Antonio Pizzonia secured the final championship point as he fought his way past Patrick Freisacher and Darren Manning. The Arden driver had his stroke of bad luck when he trundled down in one of the escape roads of Barcelona as he outbraked. This nosedived the Briton from seventh to twentieth position. Last round's winner and main title contender, Mark Webber managed to salvage nothing but pride after his cataclysmic qualifying run. The Australian managed to qualify his Supernova Lola in eleventh place, which way too far to make any impression on the top six, given the nature of the circuit.

However, Webber managed to pass one driver after another at the right moment to finish seventh. But it would certainly hamper his spirits, since his main title adversary Justin Wilson finished third and construed valuable points. In sadistic sense, the only entertaining part of the afternoon, was the string of stop and go penalties awarded to Gabriele Lancieri. First the Italian's mechanics didn't leave the grid on time and was duly awarded a 10-sec. penalty. After his pit stop the driver crossed the white line coming out of the pits, and was awarded another 10-sec. stopper. This dented the morale of the Durango driver as he threw the towel to end his stint at Barcelona.