F3
AUSF3: Oran Park round two qualifying report
TWELVE THOUSAND KILOMETRES FOR ONE TENTH - HOLLINGS NARROWLY SCORES DOUBLE AT ORAN PARK. It may be nearly twelve thousand kilometres between his native Yorkshire and Sydney's Oran Park Raceway but Astuti Motorsport driver Charlie Hollings needed ...
Edited: Jul 2, 2009, 5:33 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
TWELVE THOUSAND KILOMETRES FOR ONE TENTH - HOLLINGS NARROWLY SCORES DOUBLE AT ORAN PARK.
It may be nearly twelve thousand kilometres between his native Yorkshire and Sydney's Oran Park Raceway but Astuti Motorsport driver Charlie Hollings needed just five kilometres -- two laps -- today to lock away a pair of pole positions for the second round of the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship.
Hollings will start from the front in both of tomorrow's two races after narrowly topping today's two sessions in warm and hazy conditions in Sydney.
Hollings is trading time between Australia and Yorkshire in the UK this season as he has his first taste of racing with the Melbourne-based Astuti team -- came under intense pressure from both Leanne Tander and Tim Macrow today and ended up fastest by less than one-tenth in each session.
His best lap of 1m04.1941s in session one was just .053s faster than Tander, whilst his 1m04.9662s was similarly just .071 quicker than Macrow in the second session.
"I said coming into the weekend that I wanted two pole positions and two wins, and I'm very pleased with today's performance," said Hollings this afternoon.
"I really want to keep the momentum up because it's tough and certainly very competitive here.
"A point for pole is good and we've had three out of four and that's what it might come down to at the end of the year." He said.
Tander and Macrow both had indifferent days, narrowly being pipped for pole in each session today.
Championship leader Macrow was unable to break the deadlock between himself and Chris Alajajian today but will carry proven form at the circuit into tomorrow's two, 15-lap races.
"It's closer, that's the main thing," Macrow said of his Cooltemp Racing Dallara.
"We aren't quite there but there's nothing in it on the times. I'm pretty confident that the car will be where it needs to be in the races tomorrow."
Tander, too, noted that her car wasn't exactly where it needed to be.
"I'm not unhappy about starting on the first row in race one, because it's the racing line where the rubber is," she explained.
"There is nothing wrong with the car. We're less than two tenths off the pace but we had the car we had and I couldn't quite get the most out of it."
Italian Marco Mapelli was twice fourth today, continuing his recent run of good form that was clear for the world to see at the recent Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Mapelli headed his Team BRM team-mate Stuart Kostera in qualifying one and team Opes Prime driver James Winslow in qualifying two.
Winslow continued to climb close to the front of the field this weekend after a troubled start to the season and will look to utilise some of his Asian Formula 3 Championship-winning race craft to work his way into a solid finish this weekend.
"It's frustrating, to be where we are," said Winslow.
"It's so painful because we really don't know where the time is missing. We found two seconds in the second session today and made some progress so it's looking better for tomorrow. We need a trouble free weekend to score some points."
In the Kumho Tyres National Class Chris Barry added two points to his commanding championship lead by virtue of his two pole positions today -- the Data #3 driver continually improving in his Dallara F301.
Lauren Gray was second each time out in the National Class and will look to place pressure on Barry tomorrow.
-credit: www.formula3.com.au
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article AUSF3: Oran Park Friday report
Next article AUSF3: Oran Park race two report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
James Winslow
Winslow joins S5000 field at The Bend
Other open wheel
Other open wheel
Winslow joins S5000 field at The Bend
Plans underway for LMP3 series in Australia
Endurance
Endurance
Plans underway for LMP3 series in Australia
Second win for Wineurasia Motorsport!
Asian Le Mans
Asian Le Mans
Sprint Cup: Sepang
Second win for Wineurasia Motorsport!
Latest news
WRC star Thierry Neuville makes successful historic circuit racing debut
WRC
WRC WRC 1 h
WRC star Thierry Neuville makes successful historic circuit racing debut
Christian Horner: Kimi Antonelli has 'earned' the right to be Mercedes' number one
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
2 h
Christian Horner: Kimi Antonelli has 'earned' the right to be Mercedes' number one
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe