Hockenheim, 5th May 2014 - A heartbreaking enforced pit-stop prevented Indonesia’s Sean Gelael from scoring his first FIA Formula 3 European Championship points at Hockenheim.
Gelael was coping manfully with damage to his front wing and was holding down a solid eighth position with six laps remaining, with no threat from behind, when officials instructed the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team that, on safety grounds, he must pit to replace the front wing on his Dallara-Volkswagen.
It was Sean’s most competitive showing yet in the European championship. He had qualified a career-best 15th for this, the third and final race of the weekend, and despite a collision with Swede John Bryant-Meisner on the opening lap – in which he picked up the damage – he had risen up the order to ninth.
A drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits for one of the competitors ahead promoted Gelael to eighth, and everything was looking good for him to become the first Indonesian ever to score FIA F3 European Championship points.
After the pit-stop, he rejoined and finished a frustrated 22nd.
“It was so annoying!” he said. “From the first lap I was in the points the whole race. I had a bit of contact with Bryant-Meisner on the first lap, just enough to hit the endplate off the front wing. It is really hard to drive with a damaged wing, and it affected my braking, so it was a struggle to do a good lap, but I was really consistent and my pace was very good.
“Then with a few laps to go they told me I had to come in for a new wing. This is a cruel, cruel sport. I thought I was on for my first points but God had other ideas – it just makes me want to push harder from now on.”
Sean had encouragingly taken the 11th-fastest time in the first free practice session, and 13th in the second. But he was disappointed to qualify 22nd on the grid for race one, before improving that to 17th and 15th for races two and three.
Undeterred, he fought from that starting position of 22nd to take an excellent 13th place in race one, completing some incisive overtaking manoeuvres and avoiding accidents around him.
In race two, he was 18th on the second lap when he was pushed into a spin by Australian Spike Goddard. Gelael rejoined and recovered to 20th by the finish after making up a lot of time on the competitors in front.
“First qualifying was bad – I was pushing too hard and making mistakes,” said Sean. “The other qualifying was much better, but I should have been around 12th or 13th – we had so much potential this weekend.
“I was pleased with the first race, and I could have had a good second one if Spike had not punted me off.
“Still, I am happy and positive that we have the speed to be in the points. We should have points already, but I just have to work on improving and push on for those good finishes.”
Jagonya Ayam with Carlin driver Tom Blomqvist kept up his title challenge with a fourth and a fifth place – he also claimed two pole positions before unfortunately being penalised because of an engine change, and was forced out of race three in a first-lap collision.
Antonio Giovinazzi scored his first podium finish in European F3 in his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin machine with second place, and qualified in the top three for all three races. The other two races brought him a fifth position and a non-finish. (ms/arl)
