Gelael Narrowly Misses Points

Moscow Raceway, Rusia, 14th July 2014 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael came through a character-building weekend at Moscow Raceway by very nearly scoring more FIA Formula 3 European Championship points in the final race.

The 17-year-old had to make unscheduled visits to the pit-lane in all three races, but recovered in the last one to take 11th place on the final lap – just seven tenths of a second away from the top 10 points scorers.

This was a difficult weekend for Gelael, who was prevented from getting an all-important run on fresh tyres during free practice because his throttle stuck open. This meant that he went into qualifying without experience of how hard he could push his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen.

“I was not as prepared as I would like to be,” said Sean. “So many things went wrong and because of that my driving was a bit inconsistent. The lack of time on new tyres in free practice made a difference to a certain point, but also I was not performing as well as I would like.”

Gelael made a very strong start to race one to move from 18th to 15th, but was given a drive-through penalty in the pits because officials thought he moved before the start signal was given. This left him well behind the pack, but he drove strongly to record some very rapid lap times.

In the second race Sean rose from 20th to 17th, before he was hit in the left-rear by Israeli rival Roy Nissany on the fifth lap. This forced Gelael into the pits with a suspected puncture, but again he showed good pace while well adrift of the field.

A terrific start to race three pushed Sean from 18th to 13th position on the first lap, but again he was adjudged to have jumped the start by the officials and was given another drive-through penalty. This dropped him to 18th, but this time he had a helping hand due to an accident causing a safety car that bunched up the field. By this stage Gelael was 13th, and he rocketed to 11th on the final dash to the finish line.

“Our race pace was really good,” said Sean. “I made good starts and made up positions and it was a shame about the penalties.

“The best action was at the end of race three. Everyone was five-abreast after the safety car, and I was going right, then left, then right again just behind my team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi. I just went for it and gained a lot of positions.

“It was good to show our speed in the races, but we just need to add consistency so we can do that in qualifying as well.”

The FIA Formula 3 European Championship action continues at Austria’s Red Bull Ring circuit on 1st-3rd August,

There were more strong points for the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team’s Tom Blomqvist, who claimed a fourth place, a third, and then was heading for second in the final race when he also had a drive-through penalty for a jumped start, although he recovered to seventh.

The team’s Antonio Giovinazzi also got his name on the scoreboard with 10th position in the final race of the weekend. (ms/arl) 

 

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11/07/2014
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- Russia, Moscow Raceway