Zandvoort, 09.August 2003(bu)

Piquet pinches brilliant pole

Zandvoort, August 9, 2003 - Nelson Piquet set a brilliant pole-winning lap to eclipse the 47-strong Formula 3 entry for the 13th Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort today. The 18-year old Brazilian, son of former three times World Champion Nelson Piquet, beat Australia´s Ryan Briscoe to fastest time in the first group, and although 20-year old Austrian Christian Klien from the second group came close to beating Piquet`s time, the self-assured Brazilian just pipped him, reducing his Dutch mother Sylvia to tears of pride. Nelson Snr has not been present to witness his son´s performance following a small operation.

The performance of both Piquet and Klien is all the more impressive in that neither have raced in the Marlboro Masters before unlike Briscoe, for instance, who has done two Masters already. Piquet has tested at the circuit, but not in a Formula Three car, while Klien has tested a Formula Three car at the circuit but never raced here.

Nelson admitted that he never imagined that he could be on pole position for the race. "Before I left England I thought maybe we could be in the top ten, but I never thought I could be on pole," said the Brazilian. "I tested here for one day and that helped to know the circuit but not the set-up. I was scared of the problems we might encouter in terms of set-up as we don´t have any database. We had traffic early on, but then I pushed, pushed, pushed on my last lap.

"But that´s only qualifying. We still have a long race. I think the biggest concern will be the start. After that it will be important to keep up the tempo, but it´s so difficult to overtake here."

Klien said "it´s fantastic, I didn´t expect this. In the first session there were so many yellow flags that I decided to put the tyres on early in the second session and it worked. It´s great to be on the front row."

Piquet pipped Euro Series F3 leader Ryan Briscoe to fastest time in his group, the Australian saying that Nelson´s time was "great for him, unlucky for me." Briscoe, from Sydney, said that the team decided to save tyres and stop practice early. "I hope that we´ll have an advantage on new tyres early in the race and anyway, it´s not certain that I would have set a better time on new tyres."

Sharing row two with Briscoe will be French newcomer Nicolas Lapierre from Nevers, near Magny-Cours. "It´s my first time here, so it was very difficult with many fast corners. It´s an exciting track and its fantastic to be on the second row." Lapierre particularly paid tribute to his Signature-Plus team and his teammate Brazilian Fabio Carbone, last year`s winner, who helped him throughout practice and qualifyng.

Thirty-seven of the 47 entries from 20 countries will start this year`s Marlboro Masters which takes place over 25 laps on Sunday afternoon.

Qualifying, odd numbers: 1, Nelson Piquet(BR), 1m 33.115s; 2, Ryan Briscoe(AUS), 1m 33.238s; 3, Jamie Green(GB), 1m 33.586s; 4, Markus Winkelhock(D), 1m 33.626s; 5, Alexandre Premat(F), 1m 33.745s; 6, Eric Salignon(F), 1m 33.771s etc.

Qualifying, even numbers: 1, Christian Klien(A), 1m 33.295s; 2, Nicolas Lapierre(F), 1m 33.332s; 3, Adam Carroll(GB), 1m 33.439s; 4, Olivier Pla(F), 1m 35.456s; 5, Richard Antinucci(USA), 1m 33.510s; 6, Alan van der Merwe(ZA), 1m 33.573s; etc.