24th July 2006

Japanese stars Kohei Hirate and Kazuki Nakajima increased their individual points totals at the Norisring over the weekend during the latest instalment of the action-packed 2006 Formula 3 Euroseries.

While Hirate was Manor Motorsport’s best scorer of the weekend, having taken fourth position during Saturday’s round nine from 10th position on the grid, countryman Nakajima drove brilliantly in Sunday’s encounter to carve his way through the order from 20th place at the start to fifth position at the chequered flag.

The results of both Toyota-backed drivers enabled Manor to retain second position in the team standings at the conclusion of its weekend in Nuremberg, but for Argentinean star Esteban Guerrieri the Norisring brought little other than bad luck.

Although taking 10th position in the first of the weekend’s races, Guerrieri was forced out of round 10 before it even began due to a driveshaft failure meaning he wasn’t able to try and close the gap to the head of the championship.

In Saturday’s ninth round of the season, Hirate drove a good race to climb from 10th on the grid to an eventual fourth place finish while Nakajima saw his race come to a premature conclusion on lap 34.

Round 10, however, saw the situation almost reversed for the two Japanese aces with Nakajima enjoying a terrific run from 20th place to fifth at the flag. Hirate though was taken out of contention at the beginning of the race having lined up a very promising fifth on the grid.

“It’s been a very up and down weekend for us, we had some decent results but deserved much more in all honesty”, explained Manor team boss John Booth.

“Kohei did well from a difficult starting position in Saturday’s race while Kazuki was impressive on Sunday, making it into the top five from 20th on the grid. It was a bitterly disappointing weekend for Esteban but he’ll be back strong at the next race and I’m confident all three of our drivers will be able to make it back on to the podium.”

Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2006 Formula 3 Euroseries will take place at the Nurburgring in Germany four weeks from now, 19th/20th August. Before then, F3 drivers from across the globe will take part in the annual ‘Masters’ race at Zandvoort on 5th/6th August.

The Ultimate Masters, formerly known as the Marlboro Masters, is one of the blue riband events in Formula 3 racing. Guerrieri, Hirate and Nakajima will all take part in the event.