Nico Hülkenberg celebrates fifth season win
30.08.2008 - At the Indy circuit of Brands Hatch, only 1.929 kilometres short, Nico Hülkenberg (ART Grand Prix) celebrated his fifth victory of the season in the Formula 3 Euro Series. In an action-packed race, the test driver of the Williams Formula 1 team clearly beat Japanese Koudai Tsukakoshi (Manor Motorsport), who finished second for the third time this year already. Frenchman Yann Clairay (SG Formula) completed the podium. His victory allowed Hülkenberg to extend his points lead to 14 points. After 13 rounds, Italian Edoardo Mortara (Signature-Plus) is second. At Brands Hatch, he took the chequered flag in fourth place, just behind Clairay.
After the start, Jules Bianchi took the lead, which he kept until the 23rd lap. Then, he had to come into the pit lane for a drive through penalty. The clerk of the course found that he had set a fastest sector time while yellow flags were out. Just like Bianchi, another seven drivers were penalised for the same infringement. After his penalty, Masters winner Bianchi dropped down to seventh and eventually retired with six laps to go following a collision with James Jakes (ART Grand Prix) while battling for fifth.
Nico Hülkenberg (ART Grand Prix): “Winning is always great and therefore I am very happy with this result. Initially, Jules Bianchi was too fast for me, I couldn’t follow him. Later on, I benefited from his drive-through penalty and took over first place. Once in front, I could drive victory home in a controlled way.“
Koudai Tsukakoshi (Manor Motorsport): “Second place is a good result, even though Hülkenberg finished ahead of me again. At the start, I tried to get past him and we tangled slightly. Then I tried to overtake him on the outside, but unfortunately, this didn’t work. With a good start, a podium finish should be possible tomorrow.“
Yann Clairay (SG Formula): “I had a very good start and won two places right away. After that, I also benefited as Sam Bird was involved in a start crash. Towards the end of the race, my car was oversteering more and more and Mortara put me under pressure, but I managed to stay ahead of him.”
Air temperature: 23.3 °C
Asphalt temperature: 27.3 °C