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 Ryan
Lewis clinched Scholarship victory in an incident-packed Round 22
of the Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Championship at Spa-Francorchamps
today. Despite being forced to pit for a new wheel after an opening
lap collision with Fairuz Fauzy, the 19 year-old Scholarship Champion
fought his way back to take his 14th class win ahead of Ronayne
O'Mahony and Vasilije Calasan.
Starting from pole position, the youngster dropped to third at the
lights but capitalised on several incidents over the first few corners
involving the overall leaders to retake the class lead. Among them,
Nelson Piquet jnr and Fauzy spun dropping them behind Ryan and as
the field entered La Source for the first time, Fairuz made a move
to pass, which resulted in collision and a puncture for the unfortunate
Lewis.
With his car stranded in the middle of the track, main championship
rival Stephen Jelley moved to the right to avoid hitting Lewis and
was hit by Adam Smith, the series debutant landing on top of Jelley
and ending both driver's race on the spot. The safety car was deployed
to remove the cars, allowing Ryan to pit for a new wheel and he
rejoined in last place, before setting about catching the tail end
of the field.
At the restart, Lewis was right up with Calasan and took him for
third at La Source before making his move on O'Mahony at Les Combes
to move into the lead.
“I got a really dodgy start because the start line is downhill
and I had to use the brake to keep it from rolling,” said Ryan.
“Going into Eau Rouge it all got a bit busy and I went up the
inside of a load of people and then got by Ronayne at Les Combes.
It was carnage there, when I got down there, it was just waved yellow
flags everywhere and loads of tyre smoke and gravel.
“Then going into La Source, I had a quick look behind and saw
Fauzy and Piquet who were quite a long way back. I turned into the
corner and was sure they'd have a go at getting me on the exit of
La Source when… bang! Fairuz is right into the side of me.
I don't know what happened, whether he was tapped from behind or
left his braking too late. Anyway that gave me a puncture and I
was just parked in the middle of the circuit. The others all backed
up and the next thing Adam Smith just went straight into the side
of Stephen (Jelley) and ended up on top of him.
“I had to get bump started and drove really slowly to get back
to the pits to change the wheel, but the car really wasn't quite
the same after that, I had a lot of understeer and didn't quite
have as much confidence in the car. The safety car period definitely
helped me and I was able to catch up and pass Vas and Ronayne to
get back into the lead.”
The finishing positions from today's race determine the grid for
tomorrow's Round 22, which will see Ryan again on pole and 15th
overall, and which takes place at 11.40.
Results of Round 21
1. RYAN LEWIS BES Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 30:06.595
2. Ronayne O'Mahony Dallara F301 Opel Spiess 30:48.199
3. Vasilije Calasan Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 32:39.002
Avon Tyres British Formula 3 Scholarship Points after 21 rounds
1. RYAN LEWIS 360 (Champion)
2. Stephen Jelley 226
3. Vasilije Calasan 156
4. Barton Mawer 134
5. Ronayne O'Mahony 94
6. Adam Khan 78
7. Ajit Kumar 70
8. James Winslow 27
9. Lars Sexton 23
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