Red Bull Ring, Austria, 3rd August 2014 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael put in the best drive of his Formula 3 career to take seventh place in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Gelael has scored podium finishes in British Formula 3 and also scored a sixth place in a European round earlier this season at the Norisring, but he rated this new performance in his JagonyaAyam with Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen as his best yet.

And Sean was not finished, as he took his second points-scoring result of the weekend by finishing 10^th in the final race.

Gelael was quick at the Red Bull Ring in pre-season testing, so he was disappointed to qualify 16^th, 14^th and 15^th for the three races. He had a strong first race, battling with Puerto Rican Felix Serralles and Israeli Roy Nissany on his way to 12^th position, just two places outside the points.

“I think I still need to learn how to adapt to the different grip levels you get for each session, and this is hitting me in qualifying,” he said. “But we know the speed in the races is quick – I should have been able to overtake Nissany but he was running less downforce than me, which made it more difficult for him in the corners but easier on the straights, which is where you overtake. I tried to lunge inside but there was no chance.”

Still, Sean put those lessons to excellent use in race two. He fell to 15^th on the first lap but then he stormed up the order, pulling off fantastic passes on Colombian Tatiana Calderon, Dutchman Dennis van de Laar and Canadian Nicholas Latifi as he raced his way up to seventh place.

“That was definitely my best drive,” he smiled. “The pace was quick and I was able to overtake cars on the left and right. They were all good fights, and in the end I was getting close to the guys in front who were fighting for fifth. Our race was really competitive and I am very happy with this result.”

In the final race, Gelael lost places when Serralles turned into his path while he was passing him at Turn 1, but he got his head down and made his way back up the order. Finally he scored another good result – 10^thposition. Impressively, he lapped much faster than one of the podium finishers.

“I should have been fighting for the top eight without Serralles hitting me,” said Sean. “I was inside him and he did not leave me enough room. So that put me back to 16^th, and again I had to overtake van de Laar, Nissany and others. This weekend has not been easy, but the results have been quite good and hopefully this gives momentum to us for the remaining races.”

In a fantastic weekend for the JagonyaAyam with Carlin team, Tom Blomqvist led Antonio Giovinazzi home in a one-two finish in the first race. In race two, Giovinazzi finished first, but was penalised for a rule infringement, promoting Blomqvist to second place. In the final race, Giovinazzi took his first European Formula 3 win, with Blomqvist in second.

The next round is at the Nurburgring in Germany on 15^th-17^th August. (ms/arl)