RD16 QUAL: Asmer Takes Two
Marko Asmer (#7 Hitech Racing) took a double pole at Silverstone in qualifying for Round 16 of the 2007 Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series ahead of Maro Engel (#23 Carlin) and Michael Devaney (#15 Ultimate), who scored the Ultimate Motorsport teams best ever qualifying position.
In the first half of the session Greg Mansell (#50 Fortec) who set the early pace, putting in four fastest laps in succession to hold provisional pole, three tenths faster than Rodolfo Gonzalez (#9 T Sport) with 15 minutes of the 30-minute session remaining.
However Marko Asmer, who was only 8th quickest, suddenly managed to string a good lap together and went ahead of Mansell. Maro Engel also got a good run and pushed Mansell onto the second row as the German finished the lap just behind Asmer but he went even quicker and went ahead of the Estonian by just 0.004 seconds.
As the session entered the last five minutes Michael Devany suddenly appeared in 3rd place with a 1m15.666 lap, just 0.119 behind Engel but behind Asmer. As the rest of the field started to come into the pits Asmer made one final push and in a lap that didn’t score any best sector times, Asmer went back to the top of the board with a 1m15.428 lap just as Maro Engel came into the pitlane to finish the session.
It was also a double pole for Sergio Perez (#31 T Sport), finishing 14th overall and three places, and 0.190s ahead of ‘Frankie’ Cheng (#39 Performance Racing), with the Mexican’s T Sport team mate Salman Al Khalifa (#77 T Sport) equally his earlier performance in 3rd.
Round 15 is due to start at 10:25 tomorrow morning, with Round 16 due at 15:20.
Round 16 – Qualifying
1 – 7 – C – Marko ASMER – EST – 1:15.428
2 – 23 – C – Maro ENGEL – GER – +0.119s
3 – 15 – C – Michael DEVANEY – IRL – +0.238s
4 – 9 – C – Rodolfo GONZALEZ – VEN – +0.388s
5 – 50 – C – Greg MANSELL – GBR – +0.405s
6 – 26 – C – Atte MUSTONEN – FIN – +0.437s
7 – 22 – C – Alberto VALERIO – BRA – +0.513s
8 – 1 – C – Stephen JELLEY – GBR – +0.562s
9 – 5 – C – Sebastian HOHENTHAL – SWE – +0.600s
10 – 3 – C – Sam BIRD – GBR – +0.638s
11 – 4 – C – Mario MORAES – BRA – +0.669s
12 – 6 – C – Walter GRUBMULLER – AUT – +0.719s
13 – 21 – C – Niall BREEN – IRL – +0.806s
14 – 31 – N – Sergio PEREZ – MEX – +1.004s
15 – 2 – C – Jonathan KENNARD – GBR – +1.049s
16 – 24 – C – John MARTIN – AUS – +1.186s
17 – 39 – N – CHENG Cong Fu – CHN – +1.194s
18 – 27 – C – Alistair JACKSON – GBR – +1.224s
19 – 16 – C – Max CHILTON – GBR – +1.297s
20 – 14 – C – Esteban GUERRIERI – ARG – +1.309s
21 – 77 – N – Salman AL KHALIFA – BHR – +1.609s
22 – 44 – C – Leo MANSELL – GBR – +1.665s
23 – 10 – C – Ricardo TEIXEIRA – ANG – +1.695s
24 – 55 – N – Michael MEADOWS – GBR – +1.795s
25 – 8 – C – Francesco CASTELLACCI – ITA – +1.899s
26 – 38 – N – Hamad AL FARDAN – BHR – +2.089s
27 – 59 – N – Ernesto OTERO – BRA – +2.147s
28 – 33 – N – Juan Pablo GARCIA SAMANO – MEX – +2.227s
29 – 37 – N – Viktor JENSEN – ISL – +2.421s