Race 1: Sato wins; second race binned

The Japanese led home Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen team mate Anthony Davidson in a race which was halted seven laps short of the full distance when conditions became just too bad to continue.

Sato won this race at the green light as poleman Andy Priaulx stalled his Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen. Sato held off Davidson into the first corner and then pulled out a comfortable cushion.

A safety car interlude a few laps in proved no problem, but as the cars toured around, the rain fell even heavier - combining with a Scotch mist reminiscent of the dry ice at a gig of doom-laden mid-1980s Goth rockers the Sisters of Mercy. (I saw them once - ed)

Davidson stayed within range of Sato, but radioed his engineer to tell him to inform the leader that he would be trying no funny business and was content just to finish the race in one piece.

"I've done over a thousand races in my career and those were the worst conditions," said Davidson. "I can't describe how bad it was. It was just a procession with everyone trying to keep going. The best thing about it was the red flag."

Sato beamed: "I wasn't nervous - I like the wet. I was trying, but everything was under control. The most difficult thing was that so many corners here are blind, and you couldn't predict where the river would be on each lap."

After a slow start, James Courtney put some pressure on Davidson towards the end to complete the podium in his Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen. Mark Taylor challenged the Australian in the early going, but after the safety car was preoccupied more with holding off Manor Motorsport team mate Derek Hayes for fourth.

Gianmaria Bruni made up some places from a lowly grid position to take sixth from Bruce Jouanny, Alex Gurney (the best showing yet from the American), Ryan Dalziel and the recovering Priaulx.

Matt Davies was hit off the circuit at the hairpin on the opening lap by Andre Lotterer. The Brit then stormed back into the top 10 but finally lost control at Duffus Dip when his steering wheel became so wet it slipped out of his hands! Lotterer had two more off-track moments, the second ending in retirement.

A thoroughly entertaining stand-alone Scholarship Class race provided a maiden F3 win for Brazilian Ernani Judice. He withstood pressure from Robbie Kerr for half the race. Then, after a safety car period, Kerr was hit by Michael Keohane in an incident which caused the Irishman's retirement and damaged the Briton's car. That allowed Matt Gilmore up to second, the Northern Irishman then putting serious pressure on Judice in the final laps but running out of time.

With the weather delaying the meeting and showing no sign of abating, the second race has been postponed. However, it looks like it will be run as a third event at the next round at Thruxton in two weeks time, using the grid positions set yesterday.




1 Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 22 laps in 22m13.781s
2 Anthony Davidson (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) +1.865s
3 James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) +3.776s
4 Mark Taylor (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) +12.448s
5 Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) +16.317s
6 Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Dallara-Renault) +17.902s
7 Bruce Jouanny (Promatecme Dallara-Mugen) +19.146s
8 Alex Gurney (Fortec Dallara-Renault) +19.995s
9 Ryan Dalziel (Duma Racing Dallara-Mugen) +20.782s
10 Andy Priaulx (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) +22.602s
Sato 55.707
1 Ernani Judice (Parker Racing Dallara-Mugen); 2 Matt Gilmore; 3 Robbie Kerr; 4 Robert Doornbos; 5 Mark Mayall; 6 Aaron Scott


1 Sato 258 pts
2 Hayes 182
3 Courtney 158
4 Davidson 153
5 Lotterer 125
6 Bruni 117
7 Priaulx 104
8 Davies 102
9 Edwards 57
10 Jouanny 53


1 Kerr 262
2 Gilmore 235
3 Keohane 193