Race report

FIA F3

Daly makes a statement about his race at Monza

Conor Daly: "It's a shame that the championship fight might have been compromised by someone else's stupidity yesterday."

Edited: Sep 9, 2013, 6:09 PM

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Conor Daly

American Conor Daly's impressive form continued in race two of the weekend in Monza, Italy, when he came from the back of the grid to finish eighth, and grab a valuable championship point. Having been taken out in a first corner crash on Saturday, Daly was forced to start from the back of the grid, but made another stellar start and sliced past four cars within the first few seconds.

Chaos again ensued in the brake zone for turn one with a multiple car crash that sent Daly up the escape road in avoidance. With a full course yellow to clean up the mess Daly crossed the start finish line in 14th place at the end of lap one.

On the restart Daly started in full attack mode and within three laps was running tenth. He became the story of the race and European live television began to focus on his progress with Korjus next in line.

"I got another great start and blasted past two rows immediately," said Daly. "I had to brake half way down the straight because I was catching them so fast but at the first corner I was going to do everything possible to miss the action if there was another accident."

Conor Daly

Photo by: GP3 Media Service

With four laps to go his engineer jumped on the radio saying 'push - push, you can get fastest lap'. His next lap set the fastest lap of the race and he had Korjus lined up. Korjus defended aggressively until Daly pulled off an impressive move with a late brake around the outside pass into turn one.

They were wheel to wheel in the brake zone with Daly braking deeper. As they turned into the corner Daly held a slight advantage and Korjus was forced to give him the room to complete the pass.

"Korjus was difficult but clean and my car was really good in the brake zones," said Daly. "I knew that Sainz would have to make a mistake for me to have a go at him though."

Spanish star Carlos Sainz held the final points paying position (8th) but was about two seconds ahead with only two laps remaining. Sainz however made a mistake on the last lap and with his team in the pit lane glued to live television covering the fight, Daly closed to within striking distance. On the last lap, exiting the fast Ascari chicane leading on the 150 MPH back straight, Daly was tucked into Sainz's slipstream and catching him. As they approached the brake zone of the last corner, the ultra fast Parabolica, Sainz moved to block the inside line and Daly shot to the outside. With one point on the line Daly turned in around the outside and was just able to position his car at the apex to hold on and secure eight place.

As he crossed the finish line there was delight and frustration all at the same time. He had proven the be the fastest GP3 driver but someone else's crash on Saturday had perhaps taken him out of the championship fight.

"I drove absolutely flat out....so hard," said a frustrated Daly immediately afterwards. "It's a shame that the championship fight might have been compromised by someone else's stupidity yesterday. However, we will go to Abu Dhabi in November and enjoy the last two rounds of the fight."

Saturday's accident moved Daly from 2nd in the standings to 4th. The championship standings as the teams go to Abu Dhabi in November will be; Regalia 138, Kvyat 131, Korjus 107 and Daly 104.

Daly drives for the French based ART Grand Prix team, which is regarded as one of Europe's best junior teams. Past drivers to have gone through ART include current Formula One drivers such as; Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Jules Bianchi and Paul DiResta.

GP3 is part of the Formula One support program with all races except Valencia taking place at rounds of the Formula One World Championship. The final rounds will be held in Abu Dhabi on November 1st-3rd.

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