News

09 Sep 09

Tambay back on track at Brands Hatch

Adrien Tambay was back in action at Brands Hatch last weekend in the F3 Euro Series. Having sustained a concussion while playing football in the paddock at Spa six weeks ago, the Frenchman was forced into a prolonged rest by doctors. But the break didn’t deter the ART driver’s determination and he arrived at the Kent circuit rearing to go.

“First of all, it felt great to be back with the team and in a racing car,” commented the Gravity young gun. “I followed doctor’s orders and rested the required period before resuming my training program. But I must admit, my patience was running thin at the end because I just wanted to get behind the wheel and back on track.”

Qualifying on the 1.929 km Brands Hatch Indy circuit was as competitive as ever with Tambay ending up 6^th in the stronger B group of drivers: “I was only 2 tenths from Bottas’ pole but because the overall performance of the group was so good, that only put me down in 11^th place on the grid. For instance, my time was actually better than Guttierez time, who was third in his group, so relatively speaking, it was a good performance.”

Unfortunately, overtaking on the short Indy layout is a challenge in itself, so a low grid position doesn’t offer much opportunity to fight at the front. “In Saturday’s race, I lost a position at the start when a driver closed the door on me and another slipped through.  I settled into a good race pace and was without doubt faster than the guys in front but overtaking on the small Brands track is really difficult.”

In the second race of the weekend, Adrien Tambay’s fate was sealed at the start when he was hit by another car. “I tried my best to salvage a result but a contact a few laps later while attempting to overtake resulted in further damage, so I had to call it a day and bring the car back to the pits. In spite of the lack of results, I feel my performance was perhaps the best it has been to date. Physically, I had no problems what so ever although there’s probably still a little progress to be made in order to reach  the optimum level.”

Adrien will be racing in Algarve next weekend, at Portimao, in the penultimate round of the British F3 series.