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The
Portuguese round of the Spanish Formula 3 Championship taking place
this weekend at the Estoril Circuit gave excellent starting positions
for Racing Engineering’s drivers. Borja Garcia achieved the
pole position for both races achieving spectacular lap times. Meanwhile
Steven Kane lapped the third and fourth fastest times in the Saturday
qualifying sessions. Maria de Villota will start from the eighth
and fifteenth positions.
Qualifying
1:
A great strategy and Borja Garcia’s excellent driving abilities
secured the young Racing Engineering driver the pole position for
Sunday’s first race. Borja started the qualifying session on
new tyres and immediately topped the time sheets marking his fastest
lap time of 1’35.610 in lap four. After dominating the field
for fifteen minutes, Borja came into the pits for the second half
of the session to watch Giao’s unsuccessful attempts to beat
his excellent qualifying time. Borja’s outstanding performance
created a gap of 0.349 to runner up Giao. With this Borja was rewarded
with the pole position for race one.
In car number 2, Steven Kane started the qualifying session on used
tyres and was running for the top position from the very beginning.
Much was expected from the young Englishman after he picked us his
new set of slicks halfway through the session. Happy with the handling
of his car and given his good performance, Steven marked the third
fastest time with 1’36.125, but then a punctured tyre forced
him to stop his fight for pole position. Steven will start the first
race from third position.
Maria de Villota, the driver behind the steering wheel of Racing
Engineering’s car number three, started the qualifying on a
new set of tyres and was content with the performance of her car.
But once again Maria faced bad luck, when the gear stick on her
race car snapped off due to material failure, a very rare incident.
Maria will start the race in eighth position.
Qualifying
2:
For Borja Garcia, the second qualifying session was a copy of the
first. Going into the session with a new set of tyres, Borja again
set the rhythm. When Giao joined the qualifying with only ten minutes
left, Borja’s excellent lap time of 1’35.584 was out of
reach for the Portuguese driver. Borja Garcia underlined his dominance
by creating a gap of 0.447 seconds to Giao and starts the second
race from pole position once again.
Steven Kane faced a tougher second qualifying session that was characterized
by higher track temperatures and strong winds. Before the session
started, Steven and his engineer decided to make some changes on
the set up of his car, which didn’t bring the desired results.
Steven will start into tomorrow’s second race from fourth place
on the grid.
Maria de Villota will start from a disappointing fifteenth position.
After the session Maria reported that her car was going well until
she received her set of new slicks. From that moment on she faced
handling problems with her car and expressed her disappointment
about that set of tyres.
Alfonso
de Orleans, Racing Engineering’s president concluded the day
stating, “I really don’t know what to say about Borja
anymore. Every time he gets into a race car, he just surprises me.
Before the weekend, our goal was to be faster than Giao on his home
track, but no one could expect such a large gap. Steven will start
both races from a good position and given his fighting qualities,
I am sure we will see him on the podium. As for Maria, I know she’s
got the talent, the will and the speed, but all this bad luck just
doesn’t help to show her abilities.”
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