| 2001 Round 6 Race report FIA Formula 3000 International Championship | ||||||
|
|
| 2001 Round 6 Race report FIA Formula 3000 International Championship | ||||||
|
FIA F3000
International Championship.
Round six (of 12). Nurburgring, Germany.
Race report. Saturday 23rd June.
Enge wins in
Germany
Coca-Cola
Nordic Racing driver Tomas Enge took his second race win of the 2001 season with
a faultless drive from pole to flag in round six of the Federation
Internationale de l’Automobile Formula 3000 championship, held at the
Nurburgring, Germany.
The first
corner was always going to be the problem here and in the back of everyone’s
mind, the question was whether Enge and Webber would collide.
This proved
to be immaterial as Enge made a superb start, leading a distant Webber into the
first corner. From here on in Enge was never troubled for the race lead,
finishing the 33-lap race 5.6 seconds clear.
As Enge
pulled into the distance at the first turn, Webber found himself running wide,
throwing dust and stones all over the track for the chasing pack to deal with.
It was amazing that no other cars took to the gravel as the grid was tightly
packed going into turn one.
Ricardo
Sperafico held third for the Petrobras Junior team, followed by David Saelens
(European Minardi), Ricardo Mauricio (Red Bull Junior) and Antonio Pizzonia
(Petrobras Junior). Mauricio was up to fifth by the first corner from ninth on
the grid whilst series leader Justin Wilson dropped from seventh to eight with a
slow start.
This weekend
had not been the best for Wilson, starting with qualifying seventh, his worst
position since the opening round in Brazil. Now, just five laps into the race,
the Coca-Cola Nordic Racing driver found himself spinning, dropping from eighth
to 19th in the process. A lap later and he spun again, dropping down
to last place as he pitted to find the problem. “We were not sure what the
problem was,” explained Wilson. “At first we thought it may be
something to do with the tires, so we bolted on some new ones. I went back out
and every time I braked hard, the car just swapped ends.” Wilson struggled
on until lap eight when the team decided to call him in for the final time. “We
checked again and found a problem with the front left brake calliper which was
not working. This meant that under load the back brakes would bite hard and spin
me around. It’s a shame as I have finished in the top six for every round so
far this year, but I suppose your luck has to give at some stage.”
Meanwhile,
back on lap one, the Astromega Lola of Giorgio Pantano collided with the Coloni
Lola of Fabrizio Gollin at the chicane. Both are forced to pit, Gollin with a
puncture, Pantano for a new front wing.
Gollin then
found himself back in the pits on lap 19 when he was handed a 10 second stop-go
penalty for ignoring waved blue flags. After pitting the young Italian would
eventually finish the race in 20th.
Webber,
despite being three seconds behind Enge, manages to set the fastest race lap on
lap 10 (a 1m 31.865s), but for the Australian it is turning into a lonely race
chasing Enge.
For any real
action the place to be was the chicane, which several drivers managed to miss
without actually losing any places in the race. First to take the more direct
route was Mauricio, who managed to hold fifth on the exit.
Next up was
Webber, who on lap 28 decided that with Enge 6.2 seconds in front, he could
afford the luxury of not navigating the turn.
Arden Team
Russia driver Viktor Maslov was next, first spinning before missing the chicane,
yet not losing his 19th place.
With three
laps left to run Dino Morelli (Astromega) and Mario Haberfeld (Super Nova
Racing) decided that 15th place really was worth fighting for. The
pair collided at the final corner with Morelli coming to rest in the gravel
whilst Haberfeld was forced to stop on the opposite side of the circuit with
suspension damage. In all fairness to Morelli, this accident could be laid
firmly at the feet of Haberfeld.
As the next
round of the championship is just one week away at Magny-Cours in France, and
with all the teams travelling direct from Germany, the look of amazement on the
two team managers faces spoke volumes about the incident. “That could have
been a very expensive 15th place,” commented one team manager
afterwards.
“This
has been a great weekend for me,” said Enge afterwards. “I feel very
sorry for Justin and the team, but I am more than happy to take the points. Both
Justin and I are great friends, but he is fighting for the championship, as am I
and my goal is to be on the front row of the grid again next week in France. If
I can do that, then I shall be pushing for my third win of the season and the
championship lead.”
Behind Enge
and Webber came Sperafico, Saelens, Mauricio and Pizzonia, with Darren Manning
seventh having chased Pizzonia hard for the full 33 laps. Apart from Wilson, the
top ten order remained unchanged all afternoon.
