MACAU 20 NOVEMBER 2011: British Formula 3 Champion Felipe Nasr stormed to second place in Macau today to end his illustrious F3 career on a high. The 19-year-old Brazilian driver crossed the Macau Grand Prix finish line a third of a second behind the winner, Spain’s Daniel Juncadella. It was a typically frantic race around the streets of the former Portuguese colony with only 19 of the 29 starters making it to the chequered flag.

Prema Powerteam driver Juncadella seized the advantage after a mid-race safety car period, Daniel slipstreaming to the front at the restart on the 10th of the 15 laps. Next time around Nasr overhauled Japanese driver Yuhi Sekiguchi for second and set about closing the gap between himself and Juncadella, but when the safety car was reintroduced on the penultimate lap it was game over.

“It was a very tricky race today, very difficult with all of the restarts,” said Nasr. “I was unlucky at the restarts, there was never the chance for me to get the lead as I always had two or three cars attacking me on each side. Just before the last Safety Car, I had closed up to Daniel and we could have had a good slipstream but then the Safety Car came and that was it.

“You need to be lucky at Macau, you need to be a strong driver and you need a good car – it’s a lottery here as you need everything to go your way but we did a good job. Finishing in second is a great result for us and definitely a good end to the year. It shows, coming here as British F3 Champion, the championship is still very strong. We did really well, thanks to Carlin for a great job.”

Hitech Racing’s Dutch driver Hannes van Asseldonk placed fifth, just ahead of the top British driver, William Buller, and Buller’s Fortec team-mate Lucas Foresti. Jazeman Jaafar, eighth for Carlin, and Adderly Fong, 10th in his Sino Vision Racing machine, made it five Cooper Tires British F3 regulars in the top 10.

Two of the pre-race favourites, Double R’s Valtteri Bottas and Prema’s Roberto Merhi, crashed out, as did Carlin’s Kevin Magnussen and SVR’s Hywel Lloyd. Magnussen suffered a bruised leg in his incident and Lloyd was taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix

20/11/2011

Provisional result

15 laps / 57.04 miles

1  Daniel JUNCADELLA / ESP,  Prema Dallara-Mercedes  42m 17.099s / 80.93mph

2  Felipe NASR / BRA,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +0.359s

3  Marco WITTMANN / GER,  Signature Dallara-Volkswagen  +0.662s

4  Yuhi SEKIGUCHI / JPN,  Mucke Dallara-Mercedes  +1.378s

5  Hannes van ASSELDONK / NED,  Hitech Dallara-Volkswagen  +2.128s

6  William BULLER / GBR,  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes  +3.301s

7  Lucas FORESTI / BRA,  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes  +3.860s

8  Jazeman JAAFAR / MAS,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +4.062s

9  Richard BRADLEY / GBR,  Tom’s Dallara-Toyota  +4.595s

10 Adderly FONG / CHN,  SVR Dallara-Mercedes  +4.819s etc

Fastest lap: Wittmann, 2m 12.146s / 103.59 mph

Full results http://bit.ly/vXtuhA

Article Written By Nick Carter on 20th Nov 2011