Sachsenring race 2: Kaffer lucks in
Pierre Kaffer has closed to one point of German Formula 3 Championship leader Toshihiro Kaneishi by avoiding the mayhem that eliminated the rest of the top six in the points table
Kaffer started the race from sixth and just avoided a major first corner pile-up which involved nine of the cars around him and left him with a ridiculously large second corner lead. Poleman Joao Paulo de Olivera slithered into the gravel, where he was joined by Bjorn Wirdheim, Stefan Mucke, plus the airbourne cars of Tony Schmidt and Ronnie Quintarelli. Also involved in the mayhem were Kousuke Matsuura, Toshihiro Kaneishi, Frank Diefenbacher, Laurent Delahaye and Gary Paffett.
The Safety Car came out, negating Kaffer's lead over Kari Maenpaa (up from 10th on the grid), Matteo Grassotto (from 15th), Hannes Lachinger (from 12th), Norbert Siedler (from 23rd), Marco du Pau (from 14th) and Gottfried Gasser (from 25th).
Although he was being trailed by those who had struggled in qualifying, both Maenpaa and Grassotto proved worthy rivals to Kaffer, and would have pushed him harder if it wasn't for the fact they were too busy with battling against each other.
Kaffer kept them at arm's length and won by 0.7secs from Maenpaa and Grassotto, while Lachinger spun out of fourth, promoting the little-known Siedler and Gasser to their highest ever finishing positions in fourth and fifth.
Points leader Kanieshi fought a tremendous rearguard action after losing a lap in the pits, but just failed in his mission to grab a point by one place.
Pierre Kaffer, Team Kolles Dallara F300-Mugen, 21 laps
Kari Maenpaa, Swiss Tony Racing Team Dallara F399-Opel, +0.7s
Matteo Grassotto, Cram Competition Dallara F301-Opel, +1.2s
Norbert Siedler, Palfinger Dallara F300-Opel, +20.2s
Gottfried Gasser, Team Ghinzani Dallara F300-Mugen, +25.7s
Zsolt Baumgartner, Trella Dallara F300-Opel, +26.6s
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