Jordan King took double pole at Nurburgring 21.09.2013: CF Racing's Zheng doubles up with a pair of poles Carlin's Jordan King took a stunning double pole position at the

CF Racing's Zheng doubles up with a pair of poles


 
Carlin's Jordan King took a stunning double pole position at the Nürburgring in Germany today ahead of this weekend's three race Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series finale.
 

Earlier in the day King topped both free practice sessions and the Warwickshire-based driver wasted little time setting out his Championship intentions by jumping to the top of the timesheet early in the lunchtime qualifying session.
 

King didn't have it all his own way, Championship rival Will Buller rallied hard and the pair exchanged fastest times throughout the 30-minute session. After Buller had gone quickest, the session then hit a brief pause as drivers came into the pits and made changes to their cars before going back out for the final fifteen minutes.
 

It was at this point that King struck a fatal blow to the Fortec driver's hopes of pole-position for races one and three. The Carlin man set the fastest time of the day with a 1:49.905 to take pole for race one tomorrow, and then on the next lap went four hundredths of a second slower and in doing so took pole for race three on Sunday.
 

To his credit, Buller performed strongly and despite the gusty winds and occasional drizzle set a second quick time some three tenths slower than his best (1:50.017) to ensure the top two in the Championship dominate the front row this weekend.
 

Another driving keeping pace with King and Buller was Double R Racing's Antonio Giovinazzi. The Italian kept his fellow Championship rivals in view and will start from the second row for both race one and race three having secured third for both races.
 

The remaining Carlin drivers, Nicholas Latifi and Jann Mardenborough will start fourth and fifth for race one, before positions are reversed for race three. Both drivers are fighting not only each other for position but Sean Gelael (Double R Racing) and Felipe Guimaraes (Fortec).
 

Guimaraes had the better of Gelael, and will start sixth in both the full points races, Gelael starts ninth for each after enduring a difficult half an hour, but his pace in the changeable conditions earlier in the day will give the pacey Indonesian hope for the races this weekend.
 

Returning to British F3 this weekend is Australian driver, Spike Goddard. The Reigning National Class Champion, now in the International Class proved his worth in the Nissan-powered Threebond with T-Sport Dallara and will start seventh for both major races.
 

Elsewhere Tatiana Calderon will begin from row four twice this weekend in her Double R Dallara-Mercedes, and Alfonso Celis in his first weekend of British F3 rounds out row five.
 

Recently crowned 2013 National Class Champion, CF Racing's Sun Zheng celebrated in style taking a pair of class pole-positions. New Zealander Chris Vlok pushed the Chinese racer hard, setting up a pair of good races in the class that has attracted entries from across the world this season.
 

Vlok's West-Tec team-mate William Barbosa rounds out the grids for both races, the Colombian has never driven a Dallara F312 and the Nuburgring weekend is Barbosa's first experience of Formula 3.
 

Series organiser, SRO Motorsports Group has also announced today that both races will be broadcast live on YouTube. You can watch the races from Nürburgring here.
 

Tomorrow in Germany the race action begins at 10:50 CET with race one, and then race two begins later in the day at 16:10 CET.
 

 
Quotes
 
Jordan King, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen (Pole for Race 1 & 3)

"It's great to have pole for both races. I would've liked to have been 'pole' on my first set of tyres, but we had a few areas to improve on and we did that so that was good.


It was good to steal pole, but I wasn't sure I had it at first as George on the pit wall said P2 and the time, so I thought I had further to improve, but he obviously hadn't changed the number over and I was relieved to see I'd got pole on that lap! as for tomorrow, we've been working on our starts and I went well here in the Euro rounds so I'm confident for the races."
 

Race Facts:
 

Cooper Tires British F3 International Series – Nürburgring
Nürburgring GP Circuit, Nürburg, Germany
3.199-mile, 16-turn race circuit
September 20th - September 22nd, 2013



Provisional championship standings


International Class: 1 King 118 points; 2 Buller 115; 3 Giovinazzi 97; 4 Guimaraes 75; 5 Latifi 68


National Class: 1 Zheng 143 points (Champion); 2 Jones 103; 3 Twynham 82; 4 Vlok 73; 5 Oon 45
 


British F3 TV Broadcast:

Channel 4: Highlights, Saturday, September 28th - 07:00

Motors TV: Highlights, Saturday, September 28th - 11:00

 

 - SRO also photo