Pau, France, 17th May 2015 - Antonio Giovinazzi won today the 74th Pau Grand Prix, third race in the French weekend of the FIA F.3 European Championship, at its 3rd round. Giovinazzi had great expectations in today’s race, after he gained the podium in both the races of yesterday. His strategy to preserve the new tyre set for the final race was successful: after he followed in close contact the earliest leader Jake Dennis, the attack of Giovinazzi started in the second half race, when his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin’s Dallara F312-Volkswagen was still in his best performance.
The Italian driver took the start from 1st row, on side of the pole sitter Dennis. Both the drivers had a good start and Dennis led the race from the first bend on. Giovinazzi let his opponent remain in 1st place for a long time, having care to not increase his gap over 1”3.
At about 10 laps to go, Giovinazzi started his unstoppable recover, chasing after his opponent in the last laps. After some tries, the decisive overtaking had success just in the last kilometers, giving Giovinazzi his deserved success ahead of the Monegasque Charles Leclerc and the German Maximilian Gunther. Dennis was instead unlucky, losing speed and many places in the last couple of laps.
“I had great hopes to gain this victory”, said Giovinazzi after the podium ceremony. “The street circuit of Pau is in the history of Motorsport since so many decades, so I’m proud to be the winner no. 74 of its historical Grand Prix. Moreover, to win on a street circuit is always something special and this day will remain an important step in my career. Probably, today’s race was the most difficult of the three of this weekend. In each of them, I gained the final place overtaking my opponents. Today, moreover, I had to manage the race in a different way. The technicians of Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team and I chose the strategy to have new tyres for Sunday’s race, saving the final set in the first two races. Today I recovered in a few laps the short advantage Jake gained on me, trying to overtake him in the last laps. Finally, I was able to take the lead in the last kilometers. Later, he had some problems with his car and I’m sorry to not have found him on the podium. This victory reinforced my leadership in the European standings and, once more, I have to thank so much all the people of my team and of Jagonya Ayam to give me the chance to race at so high level.”
Antonio Giovinazzi is at his 9 podium in the 9 races he took part this season, having achieved this weekend also one 2nd and one 3rd place, which reinforce his leading position in the FIA European F.3 Championship. The 21 y.o. driver from Martina Franca, Italy, leaves Pau on the top of the provisional standings with 164 points, followed by Leclerc at 149 and the Swedish Felix Rosenqvist at 110. The 4th round of the Championship is scheduled from 29th to 31st May at Monza. (arl)
Foto : http://seangp.com/sean.php?gp=detil_foto&kd_kat_gambar=642e92efb79421734881b53e1e1b18b6
