British F3 International Series

Brackley, UK – 26 April 2011:

T-Sport’s Menasheh Idafar took his first British F3 International Class podium at Oulton Park this Easter weekend with Bart Hylkema also bringing home the silverware for the British team in the Rookie Class.

Menasheh worked hard in qualifying and secured third place on the grid for races one and three.  In race one he got a great start and was immediately up to second place.  Everything was looking good for a top result but approaching the half way mark a small error had big consequences and the Bahraini driver hit the wall at the exit of turn one.  To add to his woes this DNF gave him a lowly grid position for race two.  He got away well again in that race but an off into the gravel on lap one put an end to it.  Menasheh refocused for race three, determined to make the most of his good grid position.  He held third place all the way and took a well-deserved podium finish.

It was a contrast of fortunes for Yann Cunha who had a difficult qualifying session, which left him playing catch up in the races.  A lot of work from Yann and his engineer between sessions got his race pace up and in race one he finished in 13th after a couple of good overtakes on a difficult race track.  Again in race two he showed he had the pace and the skill to pass and finished in 12th.  Race three didn’t go his way though and he had to settle for 16th.

Over in the rookie class Bart was pleased with the improvements he has made since the official test at Oulton  and took pole position during qualifying.  Race one had a difficult start as he got stuck behind fellow rookie, Kotaro Sakurai, in the opening stages. He managed to pass the Japanese driver a few laps in and tookie the rookie class win.  He followed this up with two more wins, bagging a healthy haul of championship points along the way.

“It was good to see Menasheh on the podium at the end of the day,” commented T-Sport Team Principal, Russell Eacott. “He did a good job in qualifying and showed that the results are there for the taking if you qualify well. Yann learnt how important it is to get a good grid position so we will work on that with him.  Bart did what he needed to do and took all the top points in the rookie class so all in all it was a positive weekend for T-Sport.”