- EDWARDS ON THE PACE FOR BRITISH F3 OPENER
-
- 22-year-old American Paul Edwards nearly claimed pole position
for his
debut race in the Green Flag British F3 Championship, emerging
fourth
fastest after a chaotic close to qualifying for the first of
this
weekend's two races at Silverstone. Alan Docking Racing's wet
weather
set-up gave Edwards and teammate Andy Priaulx the edge over the
37-car
field until the yellow flags came out for the final two laps
in drying
conditions.
-
- "A lot of people didn't slow down at the yellows, and
the drying track
meant they set their fast times right at the end," Edwards
explained.
"The officials decided to let them off with a warning instead
of
disallowing so many times. In the end I dropped to fourth and
Andy to
fifth, which isn't too bad, but it would have been nice if they
had
taken off a few tenths for the drivers like us who did back off!"
- Qualifying for race two was in the dry, and saw Edwards encountering
handling problems which relegated him to 12th on the grid, four-tenths
adrift of his teammate in seventh. "We only ran this layout
at
Silverstone in the rain during pre-season testing, so we were
a bit
behind on set-up," said Edwards.
-
- Among Edwards' rivals on Sunday will be fellow Americans
Jeffrey Jones
and Alex Gurney, who experience mixed fortunes in qualifying.
Jones was
lucky to keep his sixth fastest time from the first session,
and starts
the second round in 21st spot. Gurney meanwhile will line up
19th and
17th for the two races.
-
- "My goal for Sunday is to finish both races in the points,
and go for a
podium result in the first one," Edwards continued. "But
the priority is
to finish. The double-header format means making sure you don't
do
anything in race one that might prevent you from starting race
two."
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