Carlos Sainz jr. crashed out of a podium finish with 5 laps to go at the Red Bull Ring in Euro F3 series race 7.. The DTM makes it's 2nd visit to the Red Bull Ring in Austria accompanied by the European F3 series. It was an intense qualifying on Friday. 1st and 9th place were separated by just half a second. Sainz had 3rd up to the final minute but was bumped to 6th by the time the flag came out, just 2 tenths from pole sitter Felix Rosenqvist even though it is the first visit to Spielberg for Sainz.
The first of 3 races over the weekend uses the driver's 2nd fastest qualifying time to calculate grid position so Britain’s William Buller was on pole and Carlos in a very promising 3rd.
Buller moved into the lead from the start, followed by Marciello and Wehrlein. Sainz dropped back to 6th. On the 2nd lap Marciello took over the lead and Sainz improved to 5th. Juncadella and Buller had to serve a drive-through penalty on pit lane and dropped way back. They had disrespected the track limits and illegally run over the curbs.
Up at the front Marciello pulled away from his pursuers, while Wehrlein and Sainz fought a duel over 2nd. The gap between them varied between 0.5 and one second.
5 laps before the end Carlos then pressured the German only to make the crucial mistake. The Spaniard ran too wide exiting the final corner and lost it. After a heavy impact with the barriers the race was over.
A podium finish and at least 3rd was lost, as well as the push for 2nd place in the points standings. Marciello won followed by Wehrlein and Jafaar. The mechanics of Team Carlin were left with plenty of work to ready the car for race 2 at 5.50 p.m.!
Carlos Sainz jr. “Of course it was my mistake, but it’s incredibly difficult to assess the limits. Three laps earlier I tried it there as well and was able to keep the car on track. This time though I lost too much downforce, in the immediate slipstream of Wehrlein and I was unable to recover the car. I lost important points, and I’m sorry that my mechanics now have so much work to do. But they’ll manage, for sure.”
Timetable – Formula 3 Euro Series, Spielberg 2012:
Saturday, 2 June 2012
5.50 p.m.Race 2
Sunday, 3 June 2012
10.45 a.m.Race 3
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