Tincknell takes reversed-grid win

Harry Tincknell grasped the opportunity handed to him by a British Formula 3 International Series reversed-grid pole by speeding to his third victory of the season in such races at Snetterton.

The Devon man had a buffer of National Class drivers behind him on the grid, made a good start and was never troubled, although he had a slight gearbox upchange issue to manage in the closing laps.

Tincknell’s Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen team-mate Jazeman Jaafar predictably made short work of the cars ahead of him on the grid to move up to second on lap two, but the gap to the leader was too large. Jaafar then concentrated on setting fastest lap, which he managed to gain an extra point for his title challenge.

“I got a penalty kick from my reversed-grid pole, but you’ve still got to put the ball in the back of the net,” Tincknell said in reference to England’s abject Olympic football failure on Saturday night. “Starts are always a strong point for me and this one was really solid. Once I built a gap I was just cruising round counting the laps down. The car felt really good.”

National Class racer Spike Goddard ran third in the early laps, as behind him class rival Adderly Fong bottled up virtually the entire A-class field. Goddard was then given a drive-through penalty for being out of position at the start, and Fong stayed in an overall third place until the penultimate lap, when Nick McBride sliced ahead of him into the third turn in his T-Sport Dallara-Nissan.

Fong, who nevertheless took a clear National Class win in the CF Racing Dallara, then waved overall championship leader Jack Harvey and his immediate pursuers past.

Carlin driver Harvey put McBride under pressure in the closing couple of miles, but the Australian held firm to take his first F3 podium finish. Harvey was delighted with an excellent charge from 12th to fourth that augments his points lead, while Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes drivers Alex Lynn, Felix Serralles and Pipo Derani all made progress to finish next up.

The only retirement was Fahmi Ilyas, who went out when his Double R Racing machine collided with Derani. He was not the only Double R driver to clash with a Fortec man: Geoff Uhrhane tangled with Hannes van Asseldonk in an incident that gave the Dutchman a front-left puncture.

Results – 11 laps:
 
Pos  Driver                  Team/Car                   Time/Gap
  1.  Harry Tincknell         Carlin Dallara-VW        18m59.075s
  2.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW          + 3.088s
  3.  Nick McBride            T-Sport Dallara-Nissan    + 28.552s
  4.  Jack Harvey             Carlin Dallara-VW         + 28.827s
  5.  Alex Lynn               Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 29.497s
  6.  Felix Serralles         Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 29.649s
  7.  Pipo Derani             Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 31.663s
  8.  Pietro Fantin           Carlin Dallara-VW         + 32.486s
  9.  Adderly Fong            CF Dallara-Mugen          + 34.699s
 10.  Geoff Uhrhane           Double R Dallara-Mugen    + 34.983s
 11.  Carlos Sainz Jr         Carlin Dallara-VW         + 35.391s
 12.  Pedro Pablo Calbimonte  T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     + 43.462s
 13.  Duvashen Padayachee     Double R Dallara-Mugen    + 48.704s
 14.  Spike Goddard           T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     + 49.863s
 15.  Hannes van Asseldonk    Fortec Dallara-Merc     + 1m09.700s
 
Retirements:
 
     Fahmi Ilyas             Double R Dallara-Merc        4 laps
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/tincknell-takes-reversed-grid-win

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