Ultimate makes the most of a challenging Silverstone
Ultimate Motorsport managed to bounce back from a trying qualifying day to salvage a good points finish from this weekend’s British Formula 3 round at Silverstone.
Michael Devaney charged through the field in the first race from his 20th place grid slot and fought all the way up to 11th by the end. He ran out of laps before he could progress any further, but the signs were good that he could be competitive in race two despite losing running time earlier in the weekend.
The Irishman was on the charge again in race two and made his relentless way up from 14th to eighth. He might have been able to climb yet higher had he not been forced to spend the majority of his race in a multi-car battle for the place. But he was able to hold off polesitter Brendon Hartley at the finish to claim some more valuable points.
Alastair Jackson enjoyed a battle-filled day and finished with 14th place in the first race. He was denied the possibility to improve on that in the afternoon, when his driveshaft broke while he was running in 13th during race two.
Ricardo Teixeira had a disappointing first race, struggling with oversteer throughout, but recovered well to race through to 13th place in the afternoon’s second encounter.
POINTS FINISH FOR ULTIMATE SIGNATURE AT RACE TWO IN ESTORIL
Ultimate Signature’s Esteban Guerrieri claimed a solid sixth place finish in race two of the World Series by Renault at Estoril, Portugal, having made up four places from his grid position of 10th.
The 23 year-old Argentinian had an excellent race, in which he made some excellent overtaking manoeuvres, to claim his second points finish of the weekend after taking fifth place in race one.
“It wasn’t an easy race as I had to avoid a pile-up at the start and that meant I was on the back foot for the first lap or so,” said Guerrieri. “We recovered quite quickly and I was able to push hard, but then I got some oversteer just before the mandatory pit stop. Unfortunately the radio intercom was not working properly so the boys weren’t expecting me when I came in, but despite that they still did an absolutely fantastic job to get me out again quickly. I could push hard again after that and made up another place. All in all, it’s been a good solid weekend and we’ve done a nice job. I would have liked to have qualified higher up the grid, but as a racing driver you are never happy!”
Successful weekend for Ultimate in Bucharest
Ultimate Motorsport took a solid haul of points away from Romania after a weekend that was much-improved compared with the struggles it has faced in recent British Formula 3 rounds this season.
The three top-five finishes scored on the streets of Bucharest proved that the team belongs in the fight at the front of the grid and Ultimate will be looking for a repeat performance to finish off the season at Donington Park in October.
It was a strong weekend all-round for Esteban Guerrieri, who added another fourth place to the one he scored yesterday. But he had to do it from seventh on the grid today. He passed one car off the line, out-dragged another down the main straight, and then pressured John Martin into a mistake that gave him fourth place.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good result for all three cars. Ricardo Teixeira was set for a strong points finish when he came, unsighted, around turn one to find Sergio Perez pointing the wrong way right in front of him. Perez was stranded following an incident with another car and Teixeira was the innocent party as he slammed into the stationary car and retired on the spot.
Although the aim is always to win races and finish on the podium, Carlin Motorsport’s Dallaras were the class of the field this weekend which left the other teams fighting over fourth place.
