CORREA KEPT HIS NINTH STARTING GRID POSITION
The American driver Juan Manuel Correa was ninth and took two more points in the third F3 race of the weekend. This Sunday’s race took place under the rain at the Paul Ricard circuit, that gathered 15,000 spectators.
Juan Manuel started from the ninth place of the grid in the third and last race of the weekend, which was held under the rain. He saw the chequered flag in the same position. He finished only 6 tenths behind his team mater, Russia’s Smolyar, though Juan Manuel was the fastest driver of his team on track.
Juan Manuel Correa started from the ninth place on a wet track and under the rain. His mechanicis made the last adjustments to the set up on the grid. Juan Manuel had a clean start and decided to begin on the outside of the left side of the track to avoid his vision from being hindered by the water spray from the eight cars he had in front of him..
During the first laps, Juan Manuel Correa was able to defend himself from the attack of another of the North American drivers that participate in the championship, Sargeant. He then was able to get closer to Van der Helm, who was then ninth. With the track drying by the passage of the cars, by mid race – lap 10 – Hauger was leading, followed by Doohan and Vesti, while Correa overtook Van der elm and was ninth.
5 laps before the end, the track was nearly completely dry, but it was risky to go in to change the tyres because of the time that would be lost. The only driver that did it –De Gerus- was 6 seconds faster than the ones driving on top. Juan Manuel kept the ninth position behind his team mate at the ART Grand Prix, Smolyar, but getting closer to him lap after lap. In the end he crossed the finish line only 5 tenths behind the Russian. Juan Manuel was the only driver of the ART team that was able to keep the position in which he had started.
After the end of the race, Juan Manuel explained: “Third race of ninth and more points. It was difficult due to the rain, with very poor visibility at the beginning and conditions in which it was easy to make mistakes. I had to be very careful, but I’m happy, overall. I think I lost some place at the beginning of the race because they pushed me outside, but without that incident, I would have gained some positions. I’m pretty sure that we could have been fighting for the fifth place, with more points. But racing is like that, we finish the weekend on a positive note, with two more points, another top 10 and we keep improving”.
