2007 Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series Champion Marko Asmer finished with his 11th win of the year in the opening encounter of the weekend at Rockingham. Starting from pole he cruised almost effortlessly to victory. The podium had a distinctly Eastern European / Scandinavian flavour as Finland’s Atte Mustonen finished a distant second to Asmer to rack up his 5th podium finish of the season after fighting off the challenge of the charging Swede Sebastian Hohenthal who had started in 10th proving that overtaking is a trade mark of Formula 3 racing in this country.
Asmer had struggled with grip in second qualifying and found himself in a very unusual 10th place at the start of the final race of 2007. Maro Engel had secured pole position ahead of Rodolfo Gonzalez, Sam Bird and Greg Mansell. Off the line it was Gonzalez who got away well to lead a British F3 race for the first time, while Engel, who had bogged down, had to fend off Sam Bird into the Deane Hairpin. However the leaders great getaway was deemed to have been too good by officials and a drive through penalty was issued to the Venezuelan.
Marko Asmer’s season finished on the side of the track after he clashed with Jonathan Kennard at a part of the circuit where two Dallara’s into one space doesn’t fit.
At the front Engel was pulling away from Bird, who was pulling away from Esteban Guerrieri in the Ultimate Motorsport Mygale and on course for the teams first podium in their debut season. However, as in race 1, Sebastian Hohenthal had other ideas. Making up ground on his 8th position on the grid the Swede was gaining ground on the Mygale and swept past him at the halfway point of the 24-lap race. Seb then closed the gap to Bird but the Englishman wasn’t going to easy prey and some excellent defensive driving kept Bird ahead until the chequered flag.
Maro Engel finished the season as he began at Oulton Park in April with a pole position and a win, securing the championship runners up spot for the German. Second for Sam Bird confirmed his position as the 2007 Rookie Champion but he had to defer to Stephen Jelley who finished in third place in the overall championship.
With ‘Frankie’ Cheng on A1GP duty for Team China, newly crowned National Class champion Sergio Perez took a fairly easy double win at Rockingham, with Salman Al Khalifa securing a T-Sport 1-2 in both races. Hamad Al Fardan scored a podium in race 1 to confirm his 3rd place in the championship table and Mihai Marinescu became the first Romanian driver to stand on the British F3 podium in his first weekend in the series.
With large grids and more international drivers than every before British F3 has had a great season and the 2008 calendar will be announced in the next few weeks.
Don’t forget to catch the Rockingham action on Channel 4 and Motors TV and a full schedule of broadcast times can be found at www.britishf3international.com