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Race
1: The first race of the Formula 3 Euro Series at the Hockenheimring on Saturday was anything but normal. The track, that was still partly wet, wrote most of the script. It didn’t only disturb the championship leader, the spectators got to see plenty of excitement, too. Timo Glock, however, didn’t let things get to him, moving up from fifth to first place on the final lap. The start of the race on Saturday was already incredibly exciting. Here, the tyre choice proved to be decisive. Part of the field already had put on slick tyres, while others were still driving with rain tyres. On the drying track, Bruno Spengler still opted for rain tyres and moved up from seventh to first place with an impeccable start, past pole-sitter Markus Winkelhock, who had chosen slicks. Equally quickly, Alexandros Margaritis made up from 15th to third place, taking with him Fabio Carbone in his slipstream from 14th to 14th. The losers here were Richard Lietz and Olivier Pla, third in the championship, who dropped back to fifth and tenth place respectively. As the young Austrian spun on the fourth lap, series novice Nicolas Amindo ran into his car and thus caused the safety car to be deployed. During this neutralisation, the field had the chance to close up to Bruno Spengler again, who already had pulled clear by ten seconds. While the drivers with slicks hoped for the track to dry off during the safety car phase, sixth-placed Markus Winkelhock had to park his car in the pits with technical problems. After the re-start, the drivers with rain-tyres came to the fore again. Alexandros Margaritis was setting fastest lap times, but points leader Ryan Briscoe and championship runner-up Christian Klien, both with slicks, spun off the track. Contrarily to Pole Robert Kubica, the two managed to keep their cars on the track. Kubica hit a tyre barrier with his car, three minutes before the end of the race and was stuck in the middle of the track. Fortunately, he remained unscathed. At that time, Canadian Spengler was still leading the field from Greek Margaritis and Briton Adam Carroll, but he had to work hard to defend his position. They were so involved in their battle, that Timo Glock could start his attack on the final lap almost unnoticed. The manoeuvre was really special: once past Carroll, he caught Margaritis on the final corner before the finish line and also went past Bruno Spengler. Nicolas Lapierre, who would eventually finish third, followed in his slipstream, as well as Fabio Carbone, who made it up from seventh to fourth. Bruno Spengler only came home in sixth place. Briscoe failed to score any points, finishing 17th, while Klien was only 23rd. Race
2: With a dominant lights-to-flag victory, Australian Ryan Briscoe clinched the first championship title of the new Formula 3 Euro Series at the Hockenheimring on Sunday, two races before the end of the season. Having started from pole-position, the new Formula 3 Euro Series-champion led the field of the 31 drivers and drove his Dallara-Opel over the finish line without any problems. After some doughnuts in front of the enthusiastic crowd, it didn’t go that well. The 22-year old stalled his engine and had to have his winning car pushed by his Polish team-mate Robert Kubica. Christian Klien, who still had hopes of winning the championship title, had to take full risk during the second race at the Hockenheimring. Victim of this attacking mood was Nico Rosberg, who was pushed off the track by the Austrian on lap three and dropped back from third to 17th place. Klien escaped from the collision without any damage and with third place. There, he remained behind his team-mate Markus Winkelhock, who wanted to take third place in the championship this weekend and showed a perfect race. Admittedly, he failed to reach his goal, but he closed up to within only three points to the current third-placed in the championship, Olivier Pla. The Frenchman, who actually had a safe third place in the championship, missed out on valuable championship points at the start and finished the race only in sixth place. Bruno Spengler was one of the driver who was given one place by Olivier Pla at the start and then also made his way up to catch Pla’s team-mate Alexandre Prémat for fourth place. On lap eight, he caught Prémat and left it for Robert Doornbos to deal with the Frenchman, who was waiting behind Spengler for an opportunity to overtake. Unfortunately, he didn’t wait long enough and used the wrong moment, which meant retirement for Prémat and Doornbos. Equally unfortunate was the result of the battles during the 18th round of the series for Adam Carroll, Fabio Carbone and Timo Glock. The latter, who claimed victory after an incredible race on Saturday after starting from 17th place, had to retire in the race on Sunday with a bent front wing. Towards the end of the season, Alexandros Margaritis is really shining. Following his second place on the day before, which he claimed from 15th place on the grid, he today caught up from eighth to fourth place. On the penultimate lap, he went past Spengler. Not only the Formula 3 Euro Series Championship has been decided today. Best Rookie of the Formula 3 Euro Series is Christian Klien an France is the first nation that claimed the titel of the Nations Cup. INTERVIEW: Ryan Briscoe (Prema Powerteam) : “I am very happy with this title. It was quite difficult, because Christian has become quite strong, but my team and myself have done a good job and that has paid off. Of course, I knew during the race that I would win the title when I would keep my position. Therefore, I concentrated as well as I could in order not to make a mistake. It is my first title in Formula 3, and very important for me and for my team. In Australia, motorsport has become very popular with, especially with Mark Webber in Formula 1. For next year, nothing has been decided yet, but I would like to continue my work with Toyota. I don’t know whether I will be competing in another championship in 2004 or if I will have a different programme.”
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