Macau F3: Gommendy wins

The Frenchman overtook Kovalainen in the second heat at the restart from a safety car period to triumph by 2.104.

Heat one winner Paolo Montin, who finished as runner-up to Takashi Kogure in the Japanese F3 Championship, bogged down massively at the start of heat two and dropped well back. Despite having dominated from the start of qualifying, he was well out of contention and retired with four laps to run after recovering to third.

Gommendy, contrary to his slow-starting reputation, briefly slipped ahead of Montin at the start of heat one. His lead was short-lived, and Montin passed him around the outside of Lisboa. Gommendy lost second to German F3 race-winner Kousuke Matsuura after a clash of wheels with Kovalainen on the straight after Lisboa, but reclaimed the position on lap five.

Gommendy finished the first heat 0.811s in arrears, while F3-returnee Narain Karthikeyan finished third after an impressive surge through the field, with Kovalainen fourth.

Kovalainen took the lead at the start of race two while Montin floundered, with Yuji Ide settling into second ahead of Gommendy. Karthikeyan was soon ahead of Gommendy, but crashed out while challenging Ide for second.

Gommendy passed Ida for second on lap eight, and Ida soon had his mirrors full of the charging Matsuura, but while defending under braking at Lisboa he flew up the escape road. Matsuura spun out shortly after, promoting Montin to third and bringing out the safety car.

While Gommendy pounced at the restart, there was chaos in his wake as Kogure hit Montin. Ida collected Montin, while Kogure recovered to finish third.

British champion Robbie Kerr was a victim of a first corner crash after fellow British series regular Bruce Jouanny hit the wall and rebounded into his path.



Tristan Gommendy (Dallara-Renault F302), 38m56.415
Heikki Kovalainen (Dallara-Renault F302), +2.104s
Takashi Kogure (Dallara-Mugen Honda), +3.089s
Katsuyuki Hiranaka (Dallara-TOM's Toyota F302), +5.613s
Hiroki Yoshimoto (Dallara-Mugen Honda F302), +13.116s
Robert Doornbos (Dallara-Mugen Honda F302), +15.131s
Marchy Lee (Dallara-Mugen Honda F302), +26.112s
Cristiano Citron (Dallara-Spiess Opel F302), +37.642s
Michael Ho (Dallara-Spiess Opel F302), +38.149s
Cesar Campanico (Dallara-Spiess Opel F302), +38.701s