Mäki deprives Bottas of victory

Valtteri Bottas thought he had done the hardest part on Friday by setting the best time in qualifying. The fastest driver in Group B, the rookie from the French ART Grand Prix team was this time in the spotlight, his teammate Jules Bianchi being pushed back to the eighth row.

The Frenchman, frustrated at starting so far from the lead, had only one objective: take advantage of the first laps of the race and the tight peloton to overtake as many cars as possible and get into the points. But the difficult Brands Hatch circuit offers few overtaking possibilities and the Niçois learned this the hard way. Starting from eighth row, he managed to move up to twelfth position, failing behind Tiago Geronimi.

Meanwhile, things weren't going well for teammate Valtteri Bottas. Starting from pole, the Finn was overtaken by his compatriot, Mika Mäki, who would lead the race until the 10th lap, when the safety car showed the tip of its hood.

Jules Bianchi, in too much of a hurry to join the race lead, wanted to scold Tiago Geronimi, the two cars ending up in a wall of tires at Paddock Hill, the same place where the Frenchman made a mistake in qualifying. . The accident even pushed the organizers to stop the race, which was to resume a few hours later, while the drivers of the DTM come alive in turn.

Returning at 16 p.m. (local time), the pilots of F3 Euro Series left with their position from the 12th lap. During the rest of the race, Mika Mäki would dominate the proceedings, without however being able to distance his rivals. Thus, the Finn remained under constant pressure from his compatriot, Valtteri Bottas, determined to achieve his first victory in the series. But, at the end of 39 laps, the order did not change and Mika Mäki could triumph. After two victories in 2008, the Finn from the Signature team achieved his first success in 2009.

Second, Valtteri Bottas can however be pleased to consolidate his third position in the general classification, coming back to nine points behind second, Christian Vietoris. The latter is also doing a good job since, with the six points for third place in the Brands Hatch race, he is 19 points behind Jules Bianchi, who will certainly not score any points this weekend.