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 The
Formula 3 Euro Series Championship had its season's finale on the
German circuit of Hockenheim last weekend. Drivers and Teams were
on track again for the last two races and Prema managed to achieve
two important results : the first seasonal podium for Brazilian
Roberto Streit and the Rookie Title for Franck Perera. Besides,
technical officers granted Prema the award of "best organized
Team". An award that compensates for the hard work carried
out by each member of the management team. Once again Japanese Kohei
Hirate was on track to continue his experience with a Formula 3
vehicle.
On Friday, the free practice session was conditioned by a hazardous
track. Heavy rain fell during the previous night and early in the
morning and consequently this influenced the hour-and-a-half test.
During the session the track started to get dry but ten minutes
before the end it began to rain again. The test finished with Roberto
Streit , who was soon at ease on the circuit, in the third place
overall. Good performances for Franck Perera and Katsuyuki Hiranaka
who were ninth and eleventh, respectively. Some difficulties for
Kohei Hirate because this was his first experience with a Formula
3 vehicle on a wet track. He was only twenty-second.
In the afternoon, the qualifying sessions confirmed Roberto's competitiveness
and he finished in the third position overall. No doubt, it was
a positive result for him, but unfortunately he could not reach
pole position due to an obvious mistake in the final sector of the
track. Some difficulties for Franck Perera who was not able to go
beyond the twelfth place. Set-up problems for Hiranaka and Hirate
, forced to finish nineteenth and twenty-third respectively.
On Saturday morning, during the qualifying session valid for the
afternoon race, the track was wet, therefore, all drivers were forced
to use wet weather tyres. The results obtained do not reflect the
real potentialities of the Team. Roberto Streit, after having marked
the best partial times in the first and third sector of his second
lap, went spinning at the exit of the first corner when he had the
maximum grip. He finished eleventh. Perera, after his intermediate
box-stop, was not able to work at a good pace and finished twentieth.
A bit delayed the two Japanese drivers, Hiranaka and Hirate, who
were twenty-second and twenty-third , respectively.
Race 1 : outstanding recovery for Franck Perera who after
a good start managed to overtake several rivals and finished fifth.
With this result he accomplished one of his seasonal objectives
: the best Rookie Title. Streit was constantly among the first six,
but in a contact with Bruno Spengler he broke the front wing and
crossed the finish line in the eleventh place. At the end of the
race, the stewards penalized him with thirty seconds for a non-sporting
action and so he was thirteenth.
A problem with the engine conditioned Katsuyuki Hiranaka and he
finished fourteenth. Nicolas Lapierre won the race.
Race 2 : good start for Roberto Streit who was at the side
of Lapierrre, but in order to avoid going out of track he was forced
to give way to the French driver from Nevers. He maintained the
third position during the whole race, up to the chequered flag.
An important result for Roberto in a very difficult and demanding
year. Perera, instead, had problems at the start because his engine
stopped and he fell back to the last position. From there, he started
recovering and finished twelfth, marking the best fourth time of
the race.
Fourteenth position for Kohei Hirate. At the start Hiranaka went
into a spin because another competitor crashed into his car. He
finished the race in the seventeenth position.
In the rookies' rank our drivers Perera and Streit were first and
third, respectively. A rewarding result for a very intense season.
Next appointment will be by the middle of November for the Macao
Grand Prix, on the city circuit of the ex-Portuguese Protectorate
, now part of the Chinese territory.
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