16th October 2006

Japanese sensation Kohei Hirate maintained his third position in the 2006 Formula 3 Euroseries driver standings at Le Mans in France over the weekend, the Manor Motorsport ace finishing on the podium during the 18th round of the season.

The penultimate race meeting of the season at the world famous Bugatti Circuit marked the first time since 2003 the Formula 3 Euroseries has competed on French soil.

Friday’s qualifying session, to determine the grid for round 17, saw the Manor drivers further down the order than they would have liked with Hirate lining up in 10th place, countryman Kazuki Nakajima 12th on the grid and Esteban Guerrieri 13th fastest.

In the first race itself on Saturday, Hirate came through from the fifth row of the grid very strongly to finish round 17 in fifth place while Guerrieri followed his team-mate home in sixth position. For Nakajima, it wasn’t quite such a fruitful outing and he crossed the line in 11th place.

Sunday’s 18th round of the championship which, of course, sees the top eight finishers from the opening race of the weekend reversed on the starting grid, meant Guerrieri would be the best-placed Manor driver in third position with Hirate alongside him on row two and Nakajima down in 11th place due to his result from the previous day’s encounter.

Toyota Driver Development Programme member Hirate certainly made the most of his starting position and after 18 laps he came home in third place, having run as high as second early on, a second adrift of Charlie Kimball and a little over a second and a half shy of race winner Richard Antinucci.

Nakajima climbed four places in the race to finish in seventh position while Guerrieri didn’t have the best of outings and came home disappointed with eighth place, having started at the head of row two.

In the championship table, the weekend’s results see Hirate remain in third place of the driver standings with 57 points, Guerrieri maintains fourth in the championship on 45 points and Nakajima is now sixth on 36 points. Dinnington-based Manor, meanwhile, are second in the team standings on 130 points.

Commenting on his round 18 podium, Hirate said: “I started fourth and was already second before the first corner. Unfortunately, then I locked up under braking and therefore dropped back to third.

“In the opening stages, Richard Antinucci and Charlie Kimball pulled away, but then I caught up. I had an excellent car and I almost closed up, but then, unfortunately, the race was over.”

There is now a two-week break until the F3 Euroseries season finale which will see the championship competitors return to Hockenheim in Germany, the spiritual home of the world’s premier Formula 3 category, on 28th/29th October.

During the season-opening race meeting, which also took place at the famous German venue, Manor enjoyed a superb set of results with Hirate taking a fantastic victory during round one and compatriot Nakajima finishing second in his maiden outing in Europe. In round two, Guerrieri climbed from 14th on the grid to a terrific third place in the race.