The fifth round of the 2008 F3 Euroseries Championship held at the Zandvoort circuit this past weekend, concluded badly for the ART Grand Prix team despite a good start. The team only managed to return home from the Netherlands with eight more points to their credit, partly due to the efforts of Nico Hulkenberg who secured his fourth pole position of the season from five attempts.
Their overall success for the weekend was supplemented by Jules Bianchi’s third place, but the demise of Nico, which inopportunely occurred after he took the victory due to being disqualified for being underweight. Relegated to last on the grid for race two, Nico fought his way back up to 13th place whilst also recording the fastest lap of the race, despite the heavy traffic he encountered on the way.
Meanwhile, whilst fighting for a podium finish on Sunday, Jules lost control of his car in the turbulence of the rival he was making a move on. He returned to the action after his off track excursion but unfortunately he finished outside of the points.
James Jakes and Jon Lancaster returned empty-handed from Zandvoort despite good performances from both drivers. Not very flattering positions on the starting grid complicated their races which ended in two retirements for Jon and a place just outside the points for James.
Nico Hülkenberg:
Race 1 Position on the starting grid: Pole position Result: Winner then disqualified
Race 2 Position on the starting grid: 27th Result: 13th
Position in the championship: 4th, 26 points
Everything was pretty good right from the start. Practice went well and we just had to fine tune the car a bit and to adapt it to the track. We have 4 pole positions now and it is good for the statistics but qualifying is just qualifying and only the race counts.
I had a good start and could pull away from the others. I was just concentrating on the driving when the fire extinguisher suddenly blew out on a kerb which I took just like all the weekend! I had foam all over the place in the cockpit but I kept going and thought the win was a good reward for me and the team. Sometimes you’d like the wheel to turn at last…
But Fred Vasseur, all the engineers and the mechanics and myself are working hard, we’ll keep up the good work and will deliver some great results soon to fight for the championship.
James Jakes:
Race 1 Position on the starting grid: 16th Result: 9th
Race 2 Position on the starting grid: 9th Result: 7th
Position in the championship: 11th, 11 points
Testing went quite well, it was a good first session. In qualifying though, I didn’t make the most of the session, didn’t get the best out of the car. I made too many mistakes on my second set of new tyres, which led to a bad starting position for race one. I was able to make a good start and made a few places, and I got to tenth.
Race two I didn’t make too good a start, it was basically a mirror situation. I gained a few places but just missed out on the points. It’s a bit of a disappointment really, but the team have done rather well, and I guess we’ll just have to make it up at the Nürburgring!"
Jules Bianchi:
Race 1 Position on the starting grid: 3rd Result: 3rd
Race 2 Position on the starting grid: 6th Result: 9th
Position in the championship: 9th, 17 points
"Zandvoort is a wonderful track but you can’t overtake. Had I put my best sector times together I could have secured pole position. In race 1 we were very close in terms of performance and I didn’t have a chance to try and pass, but to be back on the podium again was good.
The day after I made a good start and was fighting for P2 when I got caught in the dirty air of the car ahead. I lost the rear in a fast right hand curve and resumed the race P9. It was impossible to overtake and I ended the race at the same position."
Jon Lancaster:
Race 1 Position on the starting grid: 12th Result: DNF
Race 2 Position on the starting grid: 26th Result: DNF
Position in the championship: 12th, 10 points
"Qualifying wasn’t brilliant… we ended twelfth but I made a huge mistake which cost us half a second, so I had that on my shoulders .. But we were very quick in the last few laps, just not quick enough! Starting from twelfth, we had a good start, didn’t lose any places, but everyone just went straight for the inside and I couldn’t get in! I thought I’d try my luck on the outside, so I headed around and someone came out of nowhere and sideswiped me and I went straight onto the grass.
These things happen, though, and I ended up back in about sixteenth. The next lap saw me pass two more people, and kept gaining places. It was a long way to go, but I managed to get the slipstream, and things were going well. I think I was trying to do too much too soon, and it’s a shame, ending up in the gravel finished my race and I ended last.
Starting from last in race two I was aiming for a good start, which was exactly what happened. We were quick straight away, and it’s always good to get a good lap out. I was consistently quick, I kept passing people, it’s just one of those tracks where it’s easy to overtake.
I got all the way up to twelfth, before I was sideswiped all the way over, and he just kept pushing me over, made it impossible for me to stop, and all the contact stuffed up my front wheels. It’s a shame really, we had the potential of a top ten finish but it just didn’t happen."
Frédéric Vasseur:
Once again, our performance level was the best in qualifying and in the race just like our 5th pole position form 5 possible and Nico’s win in race 1 proved it. But once again we had our share of bad luck and we lost the win on the ground of the rules.
Nico is as strong in his mind as on track and he is already focused on the next races. We still did not have a problem free weekend and it is our main aim because with our level of performance the results will naturally come the day we avoid all the gremlins.
- Sandrine FOIX-
