Zandvoort 1: Liimatainen dominates
Team Rosberg driver Kimmo Liimatainen produced a polished performance to win his first German Formula 3 race at Zandvoort in Holland today (Saturday), but his team-mate Gary Paffett failed to wrap up the title due to a crash
Liimatainen made a great start from pole as did Paffett, who didn't appear to be driving with the championship in mind when he banged wheels with Norbert Siedler (Swiss Racing Team Dallara-Opel) on the run down to Tarzan. Siedler held on to second, but Toyota F1 tester Ryan Briscoe (PREMA Dallara-Opel) took made an opportunist pass on Paffett at the Hugenholtz hairpin moments later, but threw it away by sliding on to the grass at Nissan further around the opening lap.
Liimatainen pulled out a 1.5s lead by the time the safety car appeared on lap 4 to allow the removal of Clemens Stadler's wrecked car, which had spun off at Hugenholtz despite the presence of yellow flags for an earlier crash.
At the restart, Briscoe attacked Timo Glock (KMS Dallara-Opel) for fourth, but the German clung on despite a slight collision between them at Tarzan. Paffett was right with Siedler initially, but then seemed to lose speed to allow Glock to move past for third. Paffett fought back on the outside of Tarzan, but Glock slid wide and hit him, breaking the Englishman's suspension and sending him into the tyrewall.
Justice was perhaps served when Glock's car ground to a halt a few laps later, promoting the scrap between BSR team-mates Frank Diefenbacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi to fourth. The third BSR car of Bernhard Auinger came through to finish sixth.
1 Kimmo Liimatainen, Rosberg Dallara-Opel, 18 laps
2 Norbert Siedler, Swiss Tony Racing Team Dallara-Opel, +2.8s
3 Ryan Briscoe, PREMA Dallara-Opel, +4.3s
4 Frank Diefenbacher, BSR Dallara-Mugen, +5.2s
5 Vitantonio Liuzzi, BSR Dallara-Mugen, +7.4s
6 Bernhard Auinger, BSR Dallara-Opel, +16.9s
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