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Wednesday, 18th July 2007

Italian rookie belies lack of experience to show the rest the way at Eastern Creek and launch himself into title contention.

In only his tenth-ever F3 race, Marco Mapelli stormed to his debut victory at Sydney's Eastern Creek in the Kumho Tyres Australian Formula 3 Championship.

In his most competitive weekend yet, the young Italian led from lights-to-flag in race two in a stunning display that delivered Team BRM its first success since the opening meeting of the series back in February. Allied to a strong fourth place finish in race one, the result also vaulted Mapelli into title contention, transforming it into a no holds-barred five-way fight for the laurels with three rounds to go.

The 19-year-old qualified fourth for the first race, and was involved in a tight four-way dice for the lead that lasted all the way to the finish line with just two seconds blanketing the pace-setting quartet at the close. What's more, fourth place earned him more points than his two nearest contenders in the championship battle.

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His race two performance was even more impressive, however, as he made the most of a front row start to leap into an early race lead, crushing the field on the opening lap and withstanding late-race pressure from Leanne Tander to seal his maiden F3 success, in so doing becoming the first non-Australian, New Zealander or British driver to win a race in Australian F3 history.

“It was a great race,” he enthused afterwards. “It feels fantastic! Phillip Island and Oran Park before this were ok, but at Mallala I don't think we had very good tyres which is why we were slow on Friday here. When we put new tyres on the car went back to the way it used to be and was very good.

”I was able to build a good gap over the first few laps, but I lost a lot of that when I came up to the lapped cars. The crew were always telling me the gap on the radio between first and second, though, and I saw her (Tander) coming in the mirror and was able to make the margin bigger before the end.”

Team BRM team manager Mark Rundle admitted he was delighted to see young charge finally taste his first win.

”I think it's been a long time coming for Marco,” he commented. ”We have been close with him a couple of times this season. He has shown from the very first time he sat in the car that he has what it takes to win, and this weekend all the pieces came together and he was able to do so.

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