Spa Francorchamps 1st/2nd August - Hywel keeps the points ticking over

The British Formula 3 Championship moved to the awesome Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian Ardennes, a fitting challenge for any driver. Hywel said just before leaving for the 1000 mile round trip "I'm quite looking forward to it. Spa is one of the greatest tracks in the world and it is nice to think I'll get to walk it, or go round in the quad, and then actually drive it. Hopefully some the changes we've made since the last race will bring an improvement and can get us a bit further up the grid, but it's another circuit we don't know so we've all got to learn it."

However although the  famous Spa weather played its part in last years races, this year it was at its most  unpredictable, with hot and sunny weather all through free practice, Qualifing and the races!

"It was really hot, we needed sun-screen & ice-cream more than a raincoat! Unfortunataly it didnt really help us on the track. A tow makes such a difference here. Most of the other teams with 2 cars were takimg turns to  tow each other along so to start 5th in the class was a good result really. In the first race we were all close together, and I got past Guerrero on what I thought was the last lap, but the organisers had miscounted and gave us 1 lap more than they should have, so they counted the positions on the previous lap, so I lost the place again"   Stefan Wilson won the class. With the F3 teans sharing the paddock with the Spa 24hrs runners, space in the paddock was restricted but the team were able to put in the data from race 1 to good effect and Hywel was closer in race 2, only 2/10ths slower than the fastest lap. "This time I managed to jump Stefan Wilson on the last lap and managed to get 4th in Class (16th overall), which was ok, but 3rd would have been better, but starting where we are makes things a lot more difficult"
The next races are at Silverstone on 14/15th August. In the meantime Hywel has dropped to 5th place but is only 2 points behind Stefan Wilson who is 4th. 

Circuit  Web http://www.spa-francorchamps.be      Extra Site for reprt & times http://www.automobilsport.com

 http://www.hywellloyd.com