F3 champ finds F3000 not all plain sailing

His World Racing Team Lola lost a wheel as he exited the Anthony Noghes corner onto the pit straight sending him hard into the barrier and bringing out the safety car. The car has been returned to Lola HQ for repairs to the tub before the official F3000 at the A1 Ring in two weeks.

Hynes qualified in 20th position ahead of team-mate Ananda Mikola and although a good result was not expected the F3 champ was hoping to complete the race to increase his time in the car. He said: "It's difficult when you don't know the track and you don't feel confident in the car, but it's especially difficult at somewhere like Monaco. We've only done one day of testing whereas everyone else has been in the car since the beginning of the season."

Hynes desperately needs as much time in the car as possible and also as much backing as possible. He is still on a race-by-race deal with WRT and needs to find more money if he is to race in the next round at Magny-Cours.

His talent is not in question, as shown by his domination of last year's British F3 championship. It must be a bitter bill to swallow having comprehensively beaten Jenson Button to the F3 title, only to have the third place man land a plum F1 drive at Williams. To rub salt in the wound, second place in the championship went to Luciano Burti who currently enjoys considerable Jaguar patronage. And his replacement at Manor Motorsport, Antonio Pizzonia, is the next big thing at Benetton...

Hynes however, is philosophical. He said: "It is difficult but I'm realistic enough to know that it's not all plain sailing, but then that's racing."

Another F3 driver trying to impress the F3000 ranks is Jeremie Dufour. The Frenchman raced in F3 in the mid-'90s and is hoping to land a test with an F3000 team this year.