Jon finished as the top 'rookie' and leading
British driver in round seven of the Formula 3 Euroseries at the Norisring
today. Jon had started from ninth on the grid and narrowly missed out on
what would have been his second podium finish after a strong battle for
third place, before eventually settling for fifth position at the end of the
48 lap race.
Today's round marked Jon's first ever visit to the street circuit in
Nuremberg, and he had made an excellent start, picking his way forward and
moving ahead of the drivers ahead of him, where he took fifth place at the
end of the 13th lap. Over the closing stages of the races, Jon
drove his Multiflight-backed car in pursuit of the Signature-Plus pairing of
Jean-Karl Vernay and Edoardo Mortara, where he set the third fastest lap of
the race.
Although it was clear that Jon's ART Grand Prix Dallara was easily one of
the quickest cars on the track, Jon was unable to repeat the superb podium
finish he recorded in Pau several weeks ago, on his way to a solid fifth
placed finish.
“I’m happy with the result, as towards the end of the race we were easily
one of the fastest cars on the track,” Jon explained after the race. “The
car took a while to come in, possibly due to tyre pressures, but when it did
it was great - I was really able to close down the gap and mount a strong
challenge for third. But we got some more valuable points and have now moved
up to ninth in the points standings.
“I had a great start off the line, making up three places, but I had to take
avoiding action when my team-mate James Jakes spun in front of me. After
that I had to bide my time a bit, waiting for the tyres to get up to
temperature and stop locking up, before I was really able to close down the
gap. I struggled a bit with some backmarkers too, but the pace was there,
so I’m confident of being able to retain that form and repeat the
performance for race two. Tomorrow we start from fourth on the grid, so
with another good start a podium is very much a possibility, although I’ll
be going all out for overall victory!”
So on the reverse grid system, Jon’s fifth place finish will see him line up
on the second row ahead of tomorrow’s race, which is scheduled to start at
10.55am local time. The race will be shown live on Motors TV, preceded by a
replay of today's opening race, with the programme scheduled to start at
8.45am UK time on Sunday morning.
Results of Race 1 –
48 laps
1. Nico Hülkenberg ART Grand Prix
39:41.600
2.
Koudai Tsukakoshi Manor Motorsport 39:48.251
3. Jean Karl Vernay Signature-Plus 39:59.475
4. Edoardo Mortara Signature-Plus 39:59.994
5. Jon Lancaster ART Grand Prix 40:00.924
6. Christian Vietoris Mücke Motorsport 40:09.677
