Macau F3 Grand Prix news

[TIMELORD]

Originally Posted by strider

How about this one from practice this year? The sound does come on after a while.

Thanks, I enjoyed that! Macau is an amazing circuit. I love the Melco Hairpin - what a classic corner!

Looking forward to the main race now, it looks as if it could be a two-way fight between Jarvis and Asmer. I would say Jarvis looks as if he has the edge.

[Boro]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

Wow, throw Oliver Jarvis into one of these cars in Macau and boom, just like that, he wins the opening race. Well done.

I imagine it looked something like this. What d'ya think Boro?

EDIT: Yeah Strider, hard not to notice Sam Bird's 5th place finish, forget where exactly he qualified but it was well back in the pack.

I heard the race was a yawner with SC periods

other than that, not too surprised to see Jarvis up there. I am disappointed that Buemi got taken out tho

[strider]

Now there's even more riding on this for Marko Asmer, He's been named by Mario Theissen as a possible F1 test driver for BMW next year. Story here.

[NAC]

Now we are talking, Mr Hartley must have finally hooked it up, 4th in warm up

http://gp.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/gp5...lang=en#result

[TIMELORD]

The warm-up times were very quick! Most drivers set their fastest laps of the weekend.

Hartley's progress will be interesting to watch.

[NAC]

We are go

Audio link here

http://gp.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/gp5...le.php?lang=en

Timing here

http://www.mstworld.com/live/LiveTimingWTCCSupport.html

[TIMELORD]

Grosjean and Buemi are making good progress through the field.

[TIMELORD]

Jarvis deserved the win, but also a very impressive result for Tsukakoshi.

Grosjean, Mortara and Buemi carved through the field well (although the safety car helped!).

Asmer may be disappointed with fourth, but his new lap record of 2:11.744 will be some consolation.

Hartley had a solid run to 12th, being up to 9th at one point, before being consumed by the charging Grosjean, Mortara and Buemi.

Interesting race, I enjoyed that!

[strider]

Super well done , Olly!

Brilliant drives by him and several other other others, not least Tsukakoshi. You wonder how much difference the Safety Car made when Mailleux crashed, but it wouldn't be Macau without a Safety Car!

Looks like the TOM'S engine is now the best out there.

Random fact: Mike Conway won last year as the British F3 champion. Oliver Jarvis, who was runner-up to him has won this year!

Race report here.

Results:

Pos   Driver                 Team                         Time
 1.   Oliver Jarvis          Team Reckless Tom's          38:29.452
 2.   Kodai Tsukakoshi       Manor Motorsport                +1.767
 3.   Kazuya Oshima          Team Reckless Tom's             +4.390
 4.   Marko Asmer            Hitech Racing                   +5.331
 5.   Robert Streit          Prema Powerteam                 +6.558
 6.   Sam Bird               Carlin Motorsport               +7.148
 7.   James Jakes            Manor Motorsport                +9.573
 8.   Romain Grosjean        ASM F3                         +10.176
 9.   Stephen Jelley         Raikkonen Robertson Racing     +10.618
10.   Edoardo Mortara        Signature Plus                 +11.317
11.   Sebastien Buemi        Raikkonen Robertson Racing     +13.055
12.   Brendon Hartley        Carlin Motorsport              +13.959
13.   Kamui Kobayashi        ASM F3                         +16.854
14.   Carlo van Dam          HBR Motorsport                 +17.792
15.   Esteban Guerrieri      Signature Plus                 +18.521
16.   Takuya Izawa           Fortec Motorsport              +20.762
17.   Renger van der Zande   Prema Powerteam                +24.806
18.   Walter Grubmuller      Hitech Racing                  +26.631
19.   Rodolfo Avila          HBR Motorsport                 +45.405
20.   Cheong Lou Meng        Swiss Racing Team              +1:38.5
21.   Lei Kit Meng           Carlin Motorsport              +1:47.4
22.   Jo Merszei             Swiss Racing Team              +1:47.8
23.   Nico Hulkenberg        ASM F3                          +1 lap
24.   Michael Ho             Hitech Racing                   +1 lap

Not classified

      Jonathan Kennard       Raikkonen Robertson Racing     11 laps
      Frank Mailleux         Manor Motorsport                6 laps
      Atte Mustonen          Signature Plus                  6 laps
      Niall Breen            Carlin Motorsport                1 lap
      Yelmer Buurman         Manor Motorsport                0 laps
      Bruno Senna            Raikkonen Robertson Racing         DNS

Fastest lap: Asmer, 2:11.744 on lap 6

[Last2LiftOff]

Originally Posted by strider

Super well done , Olly! Random fact: Mike Conway won last year as the British F3 champion. Oliver Jarvis, who was runner-up to him has won this year!
Fastest lap: Asmer, 2:11.744 on lap 6

And BMW there again plucking drivers for its F1 program straight out of British F3; says a bit about the series. Asmer's on the board with fast lap, good enough? I would think by this point, Mario's there to try and paper something with Marko versus still making a decision.

An impressive weekend from Oliver Jarvis (GBR). Congratulations, wished I could've seen it.

[Alex K]

I hope Oliver can get BMW's or Toyota's F1 test drive, and show what he's made of ;-). If not F1, than still I think great career ahead of him.

[strider]

Yes, there's no doubt this weekend should have launched Oliver's career in a big way. As far as I know he didn't put a wheel wrong at any point and that, really, is a lesson for all the others.

If he's caught your attention as a rising British star of the future, he'll be racing for Team GBR in the A1GP race at Sepang next weekend. He'll have to adapt his style - less grip, more power etc - but another win must be on the cards.

Marko's problem, he says here, was lack of straight line speed, and if he says that, then it's true. In the morning warm-up Olly was fastest at 267.9 km/h, whilst Marko was 9th at 260.8 km/h, which is nearly 5mph slower. It could be set-up, but in that article he says he was running the same amount of wing as the other Mercedes runners, so I doubt it. There was the same sort of gap between them in the Qualification race.

The figures for the main race are not up there yet, which is a shame. The F3 race is the last of the day and I know the MST guys like to get out of there as soon as possible, so they can get back across to Hong Kong and catch the late night flight back to Heathrow. They'll be taking off any time now.

[NAC]

Originally Posted by strider

If he's caught your attention as a rising British star of the future, he'll be racing for Team GBR in the A1GP race at Sepang next weekend. He'll have to adapt his style - less grip, more power etc - but another win must be on the cards

No, we will leave the winning in that series to Reid.

Well done to Oliver for the Macau win though

[climb]

The most amazing result is the dominance of drivers coming from the Japanese F3: 4 1/2 out of the first 5 places (of course by 1/2 I mean Asmer)

[John Clucas]

Originally Posted by climb

The most amazing result is the dominance of drivers coming from the Japanese F3: 4 1/2 out of the first 5 places (of course by 1/2 I mean Asmer)

I think it tells you just how competitive Japanese F3 has become. It may not have the numbers (or prestige) of British or European F3, but it's arguably at least as tough to win. It obviously varies a bit from year to year, but this year I would rate it as tougher than British F3.

[Gaz]

I think its a combination. TOMS clearly had a performance advantage over the others this weekend and this allowed them the straightline speed required to work your way to the front around Macau. In saying that though the drivers need to be able to use that and the performance of Tsukakoshi in the Manor car goes to show that not everything can be put down to a mechanical advantage. I'd agree that on the whole Japanese F3 was at least on a par with British F3 in terms of quality this season. Marko Asmer was exceptional but beyond that the performances of the 2nd and even 3rd year drivers was disappointing and that followed through at Macau. Even before this weekend you'd certainly have rated Jarvis as a much better prospect than Jelley, Engel or Kennard. Next year however, comparing the two series' may leave a very different outcome .....

[Monkey Head]

Originally Posted by strider

Now there's even more riding on this for Marko Asmer, He's been named by Mario Theissen as a possible F1 test driver for BMW next year. Story here.

actually Theissen has visited starting during saturday Qual. Race,but not sure who he is looking for.May be he chatted with Marko but I haven't seen

[Last2LiftOff]

Sorry, don't follow Japanese F3, barely keeping-up with the UK series but does Japanese F3 race at Macau, or would there be a comparable on the calendar?

[crozier74]

That both Macau and Japanese F3 are both run on Yokohama rubber will also play to their advantage.

Fantastic result for Jarvis, hopefully this will be the career springboard for him that it rightly should be

[Fiorentina 1]

How good are these Japanese guys; Oshima, Tsukakoshi? Could they finally be the Japanese drivers that can run upfront in F1 or is it a question of experience with the Yokohamas? I guess until they leave Japan and race in Europe we'll never know....Also, it's funny how the Japanese are quick in F3 but aren't any good in GP2?

[META4]

Originally Posted by crozier74

That both Macau and Japanese F3 are both run on Yokohama rubber will also play to their advantage.

Fantastic result for Jarvis, hopefully this will be the career springboard for him that it rightly should be

Japan F3 run Bridgestone Tires...

[META4]

Originally Posted by Fiorentina 1

How good are these Japanese guys; Oshima, Tsukakoshi? Could they finally be the Japanese drivers that can run upfront in F1 or is it a question of experience with the Yokohamas? I guess until they leave Japan and race in Europe we'll never know....Also, it's funny how the Japanese are quick in F3 but aren't any good in GP2?

Lets see what Nakajima will do in F1... Hirate and Kobayashi are not bad at all as well...

[Sev]

I think Tsukakoshi was the one who really made JF3 stand out; he was in a Euroseries car, but still managed to beat all European contestants. Seeing how fast the Toyota cars are, I also wonder how he would have done in JF3 if he were not driving for a Honda car (he came 5th this year, but was also the top non Toyota contestant).

Lets not forget how last years JF3 winner's reputation has grown over the past 12 months...

And of course, congratulations to Jarvis for coming out on top of all of this competition

[Last2LiftOff]

From an article on Oliver Jarvis at autosport.com. There's a restriction on driving the BF3 race at Macau?

Originally Posted by Oliver Jarvis

I am not sure what I am going to do next year, but I am definitely keeping my options open. I was talking to TOM'S about competing in Formula Three again, but at the moment I believe they want a driver who can compete again in Macau next year.

[strider]

Maybe if you've won Macau once you can't go back again, I don't know.

The trouble is he'd have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Personally I'd say Olly is done with F3 now. He was 2nd in BF3 in '06 and 3rd in Japan this year. Unless some door opens magically in F1 as a test driver, I'd say it's A1GP then Formula Nippon for him next year. TOM'S may be able to help.