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