Marcus Simmons' Snetterton F3 diary
Marcus Simmons looks back at the highlights of Bruno Senna's career in Formula 3 - from race wins to a huge aerial shunt - and reviews the events of last weekend's Snetterton round
The new infield section at Snetterton may have opened up great new viewing opportunities for racing, but for qualifying there's nothing to match the old Esses. The cars burst under the bridge, break through the fast left-hander and have to get the apex pinpoint correct for the slow right that follows. That's crucial, because it's flat all way through the following Bombhole and Coram down to the corner that should still be named after Jim Russell (but, sadly, isn't).
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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