It was a strong showing by Jazeman Jaafar at the opening round of the 2011 Cooper Tyres British F3 International Series at the Monza Circuit in Italy as he grabbed two podium finishes and managed a top five finish in the third race to put him second overall in the driver's standings.
The Petronas-backed driver finished second in the first race, fifth in the second race and third in the final race of the weekend. Right from the get-go, Jazeman was looking very quick as he managed the sixth fastest time during free practice and then qualified fifth for the first race. It was drama from before the race was even flagged off as six cars did not make it to the grid, allowing Jazeman to capitalise by taking the lead from start. Following that, some incidents in the chasing pack brought out the safety car and once racing resumed, Jazeman's teammate, Kevin Magnussen, took over the lead.
Another safety car period slowed things down again with Jazeman in fourth. Then, the two front runners got tangles up, promoting Felipe Nasr to first and Jazeman to second. The Malaysian managed to fend of his Carlin teammate, Carlos Huertas, to finish second, equalling his best finish in F3.
The second race saw Jazeman start from fifth before moving up to fourth by overtaking Huertas. Nonetheless, Nasr put in a good drive to move ahead and demote Jazeman back to fifth, which is where he finished.
Onto the final race then that saw Jazeman start from fourth. Again, he started strongly and moved to the head of the pack after making his way through the front runners through the first turn. He then fell back to second after a slick move by Lucas Foresti and dropped further down to third, not being able to match Nasr for pace.
“It’s been an excellent start to the season for me. We had a very strong weekend, and were solid right from the start. Carlin did a great job with the set up work and with this excellent team behind me we produced a string of good results ” said Jaafar at the end of the weekend.
Jaafar will have little time to reflect on his Monza success as he now turns his attention to the second round of the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series, which takes place at Oulton Park circuit in the UK next weekend.
