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America's Tveter Runs as High as Sixth
In FIA F3 Europe's Opening Tripleheader

SILVERSTONE, England, April 13 - Last weekend's FIA Formula 3 Europe tripleheader at Silverstone was all about the starts and restarts for America's Ryan Tveter.

His standing start in Race 3 on Sunday morning was a thing of beauty, as he blasted from 13th on the 35-car grid to ninth on the first lap. He held off all challengers and ran in ninth place for the next 15 laps of the 18-lap race, as the rookie driver from Oyster Bay, N.Y. sought his first point in this very competitive series. Only the top 10 drivers earn points.

He almost got it, as he finished 11th. A spin by Emerson Fittipaldi's grandson, Pietro Fittipaldi, in the Village Corner forced a full-course yellow on lap 15. On the ensuing restart Tveter passed Brandon Maisano to vault into eighth, but Maisano was able to get the cut back on Tveter out of the final chicane and the pair ran side by side down the start-finish straight. Tveter was then on the outside for the first corner, and had to cede the position back to Maisano while coming quickly under attack by Mikkel Jensen and Callum Ilott. Tveter went on the defensive into Village Corner, but Jensen was able to sneak by into the Loop, forcing Tveter slightly wide and allowing Ilott to slip through as well. Still, it was a great start for the young driver and the yellow #26, which is sponsored by Jagonya Ayam! KFC Indonesia, Sparco, Brett King Design and Switzerland's Autobau conference center and racing museum. 

The driver that led every lap of the first race in the tripleheader on Saturday, Felix Rosenqvist, had to start last in Race 2 on Saturday and in Race 3 on Sunday due to a technical infraction with his car. He was the fastest driver in

qualifying and his goal was to get some points in Race 2 and Race 3 too despite that setback, but Tveter was able to hold him off and Rosenqvist finished right behind Tveter in 12th place on Sunday morning. Tveter was 0.718 of a second behind Jensen and 0.715 of a second ahead of Rosenqvist at the checkered.

Tveter started ninth in the second 18-lapper on Saturday, which was his best starting spot of the weekend. Once again he had a terrific standing start, as he vaulted to sixth and avoided a crash by two other drivers in one of the first turns of the 3.660-mile, 18-turn road course. He got by Alexander Albon, Jake Dennis and Gustavo Menezes on that first lap before a full-course yellow waved for the accident.

The pressure was intense on the restart on lap three, and contact with Menezes dropped him back to 17th.  He ran in 17th position until Markus Pommer got by him on lap 11 to drop him to 18th, and he lost one more spot when Arjun Maini did the same a little later. Tveter's car was compromised by the contact with Menezes, as its front-left steering arm was bent and the bottom of the car was dragging along the straights. 

Tveter didn't give up, though. He climbed back up to 16th by passing Ilott, Dorian Boccolacci and Pommer. The latter had had contact with Ilott, as his car's front wing was askew at that point and both of them were under investigation by the series officials. On the very last lap Dennis had contact with another driver that dropped him from tenth to 29th. That gave Tveter one more position and a 15th-place finish, but the race was also a confidence-builder since he had been as high as sixth.

Tveter started 12th in the first race and once again he had a terrific standing start, as he charged into ninth place by missing a tussle by George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Maisano. Unfortunately Tveter had contact on lap two, which dropped him to 14th place. The contact damaged one of the rear wishbones of Tveter's Dallara, which is fielded by Jagonya Ayam! with Carlin, and he dropped out with five laps complete due to the damage.

Tveter's fastest race lap in Race 2 was a 1:53.694, while he turned a 1:52.423 in Race 3. Tveter did an excellent job in both qualifying sessions, as he qualified 12th for the first race in Q1 and cracked into the top 10 of the 35-car field with ninth for Race 2 with his Volkswagen-powered Dallara

chassis. Earlier in the weekend he had some mechanical issues in testing, and his best practice time was a 1:52.856. 

"Silverstone was a great start for my first weekend in F3!" said Tveter. "We ran well in the points, but finished narrowly outside the top 10. Still, as a rookie, it was encouraging and exciting to be so close. The pace consistently improved throughout the weekend after some technical issues in testing. Qualifying and my starts went very well - to be in the top 10 and to progress every session was exactly what we had hoped. I'm looking forward to building on that at Hockenheim.

"A big thanks to everyone at Jagonya Ayam with Carlin for all their hard work. Everyone is doing a great job and the car is very competitive. As a team we had a very good weekend too, as Antonio Giovinazzi was on the podium in all three races and George Russell won Race 2. We are leading the team point standings, so that's great."

This year the FIA F3 European championship features 35 drivers from 17 countries. Eighteen of the 35 are rookies like Tveter, and prior to this weekend's season opener only three of the 35 had ever won a European F3 race.

The next event is another tripleheader May 1-3 at Hockenheim, Germany. Tveter will tackle the track at Pau, France for the first time May 15-17. The series then travels to Monza, Italy May 29-31. The complete 11-event, 33-race schedule can be found on FIAF3Europe.com. 

The series is broadcast in the United States on FOX Sports 2, and all the events will be available for viewing on the FIA Formula 3 European Championship channel on YouTube. All three races from Silverstone are already posted there.

Fans can follow Tveter through his Web site at RyanTveter.com, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The team's Web site is at Carlin.co.uk.