Nurburgring, Germany, 17^th August 2014 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael narrowly missed out on points in a dramatic latest round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the Nurburgring in Germany.

Gelael took his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen to 11^th place in the final race, frustratingly one place outside the points-scoring positions, after spending the majority of the race in a frantic battle for sixth place.

This made up for difficult first and second races. For the first, 17-year-old Sean qualified 13^th in tricky damp conditions. The race was also run in the damp, with the field on slick tyres, and Gelael made a sensational start to move up to ninth place. Unfortunately, he had narrowly exceeded the pit-lane speed limit as he completed his warm-up laps to the grid, and was therefore given a drive-through penalty in the race.

Undeterred, Sean battled his way back from 23^rd to finish 16^th, passing Australian Spike Goddard and Israeli Roy Nissany in the closing laps but then narrowly missing out in his fight with Nissany.

“We were really quick in the middle and final sectors of the lap in qualifying,” said Gelael, “but struggling in the first sector. I was confident we would be quick in the race, but the penalty destroyed my hopes. I passed a lot of cars though and we showed good speed, especially when it was damper.”

With the weather now dry, second qualifying provided Sean with 17^th on the grid for race two and 16^th for race three. “It was not what I was expecting, I was just too cautious,” he said.

In race two he moved up to 14^th with a series of passing moves, including a dramatic dive on Dutchman Dennis van de Laar, and then started catching the train of cars disputing 10^th. But then he took to the escape road and hit a tyre wall while catching Nissany. Amazingly Gelael continued, rising to 14^th again before a spin dropped him back to 17^th. Then he recovered once more to 14^th, but damaged his front wing in a collision with Puerto Rican Felix Serralles and was forced to retire.

“The pace was good but it was a really aggressive race,” he said. “A busy race but very messy.”

In the final race, Sean raced from 16^th to 12^th on the first two laps, then passed Goddard for 11^th. Despite pushing as hard as he could, he was unable to find a way ahead of Dutchman Jules Szymkowiak for the final point.

“We were not as strong on the brakes as we had been in the earlier races,” said Gelael. “I had a go at Jules but he closed the inside, I locked up and ran wide. Everyone was fighting so it was really hard to find a gap to make a clean move. Also, it was very hard because when you get close to the car in front you lose downforce and understeer. And I could not even benefit from the tow on the straight because we were in such a big group that everyone was slipstreaming, which neutralised any speed advantage.”

It was another winning weekend for the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team. Antonio Giovinazzi took his second victory of the season and added a third place, while Tom Blomqvist claimed two seconds and a fifth, as well as two pole positions.

There is now a long break in the calendar until the penultimate round of the championship, at Imola in Italy, on 11^th-12^th October.  (ms/arl)