Spa-Francorchamps, 23 Juni 2014 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael emerged through three incredibly tough races at Spa-Francorchamps with three finishes in the latest round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

All three races included non-stop slipstreaming action down the whole field, with Sean making up places from his grid positions in all three and taking a best finish of 13^th in races two and three.

Gelael came to the Belgian Grand Prix circuit with his confidence high after taking points from the previous two rounds, at Pau and the Hungaroring.

But qualifying was very unfortunate for the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team. In the first session, which decided the grid for race one, Sean and his team-mates were delayed by other drivers looking for a tow – crucial for slipstreaming to a good lap time at Spa.

Then, in the second session, which decided the grid for races two and three, a shower of rain made tactics very difficult to call for everybody. The team believed that the rain would continue and the track would stay wet. Gelael and his team-mates gunned for quick lap times from the beginning, featuring well up the order, but when the track dried others leapfrogged them as they were powerless to resist, with their wet-weather tyres now completely worn out.

“In first qualifying I only really had one lap to do it,” said Sean. “This is the longest track on the calendar and everyone was together on the track – I would have been better off slowing right down and finding some space to go quickly on my own.

“In second qualifying it was unfortunate, but the decision the team made did not work out. We were the first time to blow out our rear tyres. I even had to make a pit-stop half way through to have the rear tyres changed, but that just gave me massive understeer.”

All three races featured a host of place changes for Gelael that would take a whole book to document! In race one he progressed to finish 18^th. In race two he made up a host of places on the first lap but was delayed when Spike Goddard spun in front of him – undeterred, he made a great recovery to finish 13^th. In race three he once again had an incident with Goddard, this damaging Sean’s front wing, but he was part of a great battle on the edges of the points before finishing 13^th again.

“Race one was not very good because we did not have a good balance,” said Gelael. “The car was a lot better in the second, but I lost so many places when Spike spun in front of me. And it is always difficult at Spa, because with all the slipstreaming you are trying to go towards the front but having to defend from the guys behind as well.

“In race three our pace was a lot better, even though we had already used our good tyres and the ones we were on in this race were not so good. The contact with Spike broke the nose of the car a bit, but in all other senses it was a good race so I was pleased with that.”

There is no rest for Sean and the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team, as the next round begins in just a few days’ time, on the Norisring street circuit in Germany. “Obviously there is still a bit of improvement to come from my side,” he said, “but we are looking good for the Norisring.”

The Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team got more good results at Spa with Tom Blomqvist. Despite the team’s struggles in qualifying, he came through to take excellent fourth, sixth and eighth-place finishes. Antonio Giovinazzi was another who was further down the grid than expected, and he claimed a best result of ninth.  (ms/arl)