Britain’s Sean Walkinshaw made his second Copa Class podium visit of the European Formula 3 Open season at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend, 7th/8th September, following a top notch recovery drive during round 11 of the campaign.
But while Saturday’s third place ‘Copa’ result was a real fillip for the 19-year-old, round 12 on Sunday came to a bitterly disappointing conclusion on the opening lap after a horrifying multi-car accident in which he was an innocent party.
With the race having been brought under Safety Car conditions, following an incident at Les Combes, several drivers were caught-out by others correctly slowing to heed the yellow flags midway around the lap – resulting in a nasty collision which involved as many as 10 cars.
Although doing his best to avoid the carnage, Sean’s Dallara F308 was collected by a rival which led to significant damage. Thankfully, the Chipping Norton driver – and the others involved – emerged unscathed from a very worrying incident.
“I’m really pleased to have been back on the podium this weekend but race two was, obviously, a big disappointment”, said the Team West-Tec driver, “There isn’t much you can do in a situation like that, a few guys came together at different speeds and although I did what I could to keep out of trouble I was hit on the outside and that was race over for me. I’m just glad everyone was OK.”
Sean started the weekend with a steady performance in free practice on Friday, 6th September, and then upped his pace in qualifying to post the sixth fastest ‘Copa’ time. However, this later became fifth and 19th on the overall grid when Richard Gonda had his times from the session expunged.
Although making a good start to Saturday’s 11th round, Sean avoided a tangle at La Source but an unfortunate spin at the daunting Eau Rouge dropped him to 10th position in class. Determined to fight his way back through as quickly as possible, the first year F3 driver sliced his way into seventh in the Copa mid-lap and by the start of the second tour he was up into sixth position.
Continuing his rapid ascent up the order, the Oxfordshire teenager moved into fifth a lap later and closed up behind Copa rival Tommaso Menchini as the race approached mid-distance. He then took fourth from the Italian on lap five but Menchini hit back soon after.
Into the penultimate lap, Sean held fifth in class but an electrical problem for Copa leader Gonda enabled the Briton to move back into fourth. Then, on the final tour, Sean managed to get back ahead of Menchini to take third place – capping a fantastic performance in 16th position overall.
“I’m happy with the pace we showed in the first race, without the spin we could have been in with a chance of challenging for the class win”, he commented, “Things have definitely been moving in the right direction over the last few events and I’m really looking forward to Monza now, we’ll definitely be looking to try and challenge for more podiums there.”
There is now a four week break in the European F3 Open calendar ahead of rounds 13 and 14 of the season at Monza in Italy on 5th/6th October.
Provisional 2013 European Formula 3 Open ‘Copa Class’ Standings (after Rd12):
9th Sean Walkinshaw, 15pts