#27 Dan Ticktum (GBR – Motopark Dallara Volkswagen)
Qualifying 1: 5th – Race 1 Grid: 5th – Race 1 Result: 5th
Qualifying 2: 1st – Race 2 Grid: 1st – Race 2 Result: 6th
Qualifying 2nd time: 1st – Race 3 Grid: 1st – Race 3 Result: DNF
FIA F3 European Championship position: 4th – 118 points – after 12 of 30 races
With the pace that should have launched him into the FIA F3 European Championship lead, Red Bull Junior Dan Ticktum sat on pole twice in Zandvoort. But the 19-year-old Briton suffered from an early hit following the first getaway and a jump start the second time he launched from pole.
“It was pretty frustrating as the pace was so clearly there,” said the Motopark driver. “The best driver in the best car and that showed with the double pole. Unfortunately we couldn’t convert that into a couple of wins. I got a damaged car in Race 2 and jump start penalty in Race 3.”
Perfect second qualifying
“The pressures weren’t quite right in first qualy,” explained Ticktum. “I think fifth was about right considering. For Q2 though the team got it all right, the pressures, the balance, excellent. It was a great car to drive and it was the car to put on pole, fantastic.”
After finishing where he started in Race 1 he was then looking forward to a charge from P1 on the grid. “From pole for Race 2 I got a good start but Aron (Ralf Aron) got a better one and that left me to deal with an optimistic Schumacher (Mick Schumacher). He hit me and I ended up with an oval wheel and a bent pushrod.”
“I did what I could with the car and I didn’t know how much damage we had. With hindsight I probably should have settled for fourth but I was pushing all I could and we ended up sixth but that’s OK, not too bad considering the way the car was damaged.”
Not a perfect Sunday
“In Race 3 this morning it was just the clutch again. When the clutch gets hot you have a window of about a second to either get fully on the clutch or stall and I just moved about a tenth of a second before the light. Got the penalty and that was it really.”
“It´s a problem, it’s not bad luck, it’s not really driver error either really. We don’t have the right procedure sorted in our team, the others are also having the same issue so we need to work on that as a team.”
Source: Red Bull Junior Team – https://win.gs/2JsqW6q