British F3, Oulton Park Race 1
The first of the three heats of the race took place on Saturday 8 April Oulton Parkvalid for the second race weekend of the British Formula 3. The winner was Joseph Loake, of JHR Development, impeccable in first conquering the pole position and then in leading the group from the first to the last lap, ahead of teammate Matthew Rees and Callum Voisin of Rodin Carlin, before the exposure of the Red flag.
The category, created to offer young British drivers opportunities to emerge, in 2014 baptized the single-seater debut of George Russell, who with 5 victories and 11 poles at just 16 years old, then had the opportunity to enter the FIA F3 and to start his successful career that took him up to Formula 1 at Mercedes.
Near tragedy
But during Race 1 at Oulton Park there was a truly surreal moment when after 10 laps the images of the cameras resumed the crashed cars in the escape route of Gerrard Xie and Costa Toparis e the group passing right at the Lodge curve, the scene of the contact.
That was sketchy pic.twitter.com/EaSRWKQncv
— Mattzel89 (@Mattzel89) April 8, 2023
The young pilots were faced with a decidedly dangerous scene. Warned by a double yellow flag, they never expected to see the single-seater of Costa Toparis – fortunately without the driver – descending again towards the curve, cutting it perpendicularly just as the peloton was approaching. As many as 17 drivers grazed and narrowly dodged the Rodin Carlin car that cut them off. The hesitation of the track marshals and the even more serious one of the Race Direction is unforgivable: from the moment of the accident between Costa Toparis and Gerrard Xie, in fact, a complete lap has passed, practically a minute and a half, without a decision to neutralize the race with a Safety Car or a red flag (as happened after the risky episode).
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