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Linda Mansfield
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America’s Tveter Shows Good Pace
As GP3 Makes Debut at Paul Ricard

LE CASTELLET, France, June 25 — America’s Ryan Tveter of Oyster Bay, N.Y. was 0.352 and 0.065 of a second from scoring points in both halves of the GP3 Series doubleheader last weekend at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The races supported the French Grand Prix Formula 1 event.

Tveter, who drives the Trident No. 7 carrying the colors of The Disruptive, Stilo, and his charity partners — Right To Play, MTV Staying Alive, and the Lessons for Life Foundation — will get to try again very soon, as the series has another doubleheader this coming weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. He placed fourth and fifth in those races last year in only his second GP3 Series event ever.

The series bestows points to the top 10 finishers of Saturday’s races. Tveter crossed the line in 13th on Saturday in France, but was later elevated to 11th when the cars of the winner and the fifth-place finisher were disqualified  during the post-race technical inspections. Tveter was just 0.065 of a second behind the tenth-place finisher on the final scorecards after 20 laps.

That also gave him the 11th-place starting spot for Sunday’s 15-lap race, in which he placed ninth, just 0.352 behind the last position to earn points in that race, which is eighth.

The 24-year-old driver had good pace in both events.

On Sunday he moved into the top 10 on lap four when Jake Hughes pitted with a broken front wing. Tveter was embroiled in a heated battle with Juan Manuel Correa at the time. On the following lap Tveter passed Correa for ninth in Turn 11, and he remained ninth for the rest of the race.

Tveter went all out trying to get the last points-paying position, setting his best lap of the race on the final lap with a time of 1:53.572.

Tveter started 15th and originally was scored in 13th after Saturday morning’s race. There were no full-course cautions and the field got spread out.

Tveter qualified 15th on Friday with a time of 1:51.450 for the 5.842-kilometer, 15-turn road course. The top 17 were covered by less than a second and Tveter was just 0.835 from the pole and 0.342 from the top eight. It was the series’ first visit to this track, and the famous Mistral straight was broken up by a chicane. The surface was recently repaved too, which added to the intrigue.

Tveter blasted off at the start on Saturday and passed both David Beckmann and Tatiana Calderon before Sector 1 of the first lap, but Calderon got him back in Sector 2. He was scored in 14th on the first lap, but he was back to 15th on lap two after Correa passed him. He got Correa back on lap four to regain 14th, but Correa repassed him on lap five during the intense battle.

On the next-to-last lap Tveter moved up to 14th after Calderon and Correa had an incident, and he got 13th on the final lap when he passed Christian Lundgaard. At the checkered Tveter was 0.065 of a second behind the 12th place driver, Jake Hughes, and he was already 0.6 of a second ahead of Lundgaard. Then he moved up two places after post-race tech to finish 11th officially in that event.

We definitely made excellent progress with the car’s balance for Paul Ricard; the car felt very strong,” Tveter said on Monday. “Unfortunately we had a messy final new tire run and I didn't deliver my best lap during qualifying so we were on the back foot throughout the weekend. But we narrowly missed a points finish in both races, so the pace was clearly there. I was able to close big gaps during the races, but having the DRS disabled in both, especially after some drivers were able to use it in Race 1, was a massive handicap coming from the back, particularly at Paul Ricard where there are so few opportunities to pass. In yesterday’s race I was able to get the run on Correa and take P9 with P8 well within my sights, but I just couldn't pass Pulcini, who didn’t have the best pace but was driving a flawless race. I’m looking forward to Austria later this week. Thanks as always to Trident for all their hard work!”

For more information see RyanTveter.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The series' Web site, which hosts a live timing and scoring feed, is at gp3series.com. Trident's Web site is at tridentmotorsport.com.

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