24th October 2005

Brazilian sensation Lucas Tucci Di Grassi sealed third position in the final Formula 3 Euroseries standings of 2005 at Hockenheim over the weekend, after netting his fifth podium finish of the regular season.

The 21-year-old, a key member of the renowned Renault Driver Development Programme, was in great form from the off at the German venue and immediately underlined his intent by setting the fastest time in Friday’s free practice session.

While not quite able to wrest either of the weekend’s pole positions away from 2005 F3 Euroseries Champion Lewis Hamilton, Di Grassi nonetheless started from the front row for both races.

At the beginning of Saturday’s encounter, the Brazilian got away well from second on the grid and maintained his place throughout the 17 lap race distance to record a superb second position.

In Sunday’s 20th and final round, however, Di Grassi’s placing in the championship did look under threat after he suffered problems with rear suspension failure as a result of contact with another car. His great result the previous day, though, meant he had done enough.

Speaking on his podium result, Di Grassi said: “I was very happy to have finished runner-up in the race, particularly as it is the final weekend of the season. I’m going to enter the off-season with a good result under my belt.”

Di Grassi took a maiden race victory at Oschersleben in June and also finished on the podium at the prestigious Marlboro Masters meeting, staged at Zandvoort in the Netherlands.

For young Scotsman Paul Di Resta, his maiden season of F3 competition ended in unfortunate fashion even though, like his team-mate, the weekend had begun well.

Having finished third fastest in free practice, a shade slower than Hamilton and pace-setter Di Grassi, the 19-year-old Mercedes-Benz Junior Motorsport Programme ace recording a third row start for both races.

Round 19 saw Di Resta forced to retire on his 12th lap while Sunday’s 20th and final round of the season ended with some controversy after the teenager was excluded from the results following a collision involving German driver Maximilian Gotz.

On lap 15 of 18, Di Resta made an error under braking, while attempting to pass Frenchman Loic Duval at the hairpin, and collided with Gotz. Race officials not only moved to exclude the Manor driver from the results belatedly, he was also handed a fine. Duval, meanwhile, was also excluded having ignored black flags.

However, Di Resta overcame the difficult weekend to still leave Hockenheim with 10th place in the driver standings and will now be looking forward, like Di Grassi, to a strong winter of testing before potentially returning to the championship in 2006.

Di Resta took his first podium finish of the season at Norisring in July and only just missed out on the podium by a mere eight 10ths of a second at the 2005 Marlboro Masters race.

In the team’s classification, Manor Motorsport ended only its second season of F3 Euroseries action fourth overall in the championship, frustratingly a mere three points adrift of third place.