Despite agonisingly missing out on securing its maiden podium finish in the final race on the 2007 British F3 calendar at Rockingham, Ultimate Motorsport was nevertheless in the mood to party at the Northamptonshire circuit at the end of a superb debut campaign.
Having spun in qualifying, Esteban Guerrieri was forced to begin the first race from down in 25th on the grid, but a meteoric getaway something of a feature of the Argentine's season saw him make up ten places on the first lap alone, and he would go on to finish 13th, right in the wheeltracks of team-mate Michael Devaney.
The Irishman would be out of luck in race two dropping out of eighth place with brake problems but Guerrieri made another strong start to grab three places off the line from seventh on the grid. Though he ran third for much of the race, a small mistake led to a controversial overtaking manoeuvre by Fortec's Sebastien Hohenthal that demoted him to fourth place at the chequered flag equalling Ultimate's best finish of the year, but similarly dashing the team's hopes of registering a rostrum result in their maiden season of competition.
In the first race the car was good and my start was great, stated 22-year-old former International F3000 front-runner Guerrieri. I passed loads of slow cars on the opening lap and got into a good rhythm. For the first few laps the car was really handling well, but then the degradation in the tyres began and I couldn't push.
In the second race I had another very good start and made it up to fourth from seventh, then climbed to third. The car was much better and I was comfortable in third, but then I hit a bit of a dirty patch in a fast corner in the middle of the circuit and Hohenthal closed on me.
He was right on my arse coming onto the line and went down the inside into the first corner. He went under the white line we were told not to go over during the drivers' briefing and made it past me. It was totally wrong, and we should have got that podium.
