An excellent premiere start at the Brno Circuit was enacted by the domestic pilot Václav Šafář, for the first time in his career driving the formula 3 monopost and immediately achieving the quickest lap times. After start from the pole position, a beautiful duel for the top rank and the quickest lap in the race he had to take the second rank for the reason of the premature end of the race.
The final race of the season registered a record number of formula cars. The starting grid included exactly 32 monoposts, offering a wonderful show and a number of attractive duels. This main battle took place in the lead. Václav Šafář had surprised with his speed already in the time practice, won with an advantage of a half of a second before the experienced Sandro Zeller. The second row of the starting grid was occupied by Philipp Regensperger and Paolo Brajnik, followed by Kurt Böhlen and Marcel Tobler in the third row and Andrea Cola and Josef Halwachs in the fourth row.
Šafář was the tip for the winner among the hot burning audience but when the red lights went off he was overtaken in the sprint before the first curve by Sandro Zeller who took the lead. This started their dramatic duel for the final victory. Zeller occupied the defensive trail and Šafář found it hard to find the ideal position for overtaking. The leading tandem was followed from a distance by Philipp Regensperger waiting for a potential mistake of either Zeller or Šafář.
A big chance for Šafář came when the pair were overtaking slower formulas one lap behind. Šafář excellently used the busy traffic on the road, approached Zeller and took over the lead in the first “S” curve of the Masaryk Circuit. Unluckily for Šafář the red flags appeared in the course of the following lap for the reason of a formula stopped in the middle of the road meaning premature finish of the race. The final classification was based on the results of the previous lap where Zeller was still in the lead. Thus the Swiss pilot became the winner of the first formula race in Brno and Šafář had to take the second rank. The podium was climbed together with them by Philipp Regensperger.
“We came to Brno to fight for the podium, which we have managed. I won the time practice and although Sandro Zeller overtook me after start, I drove stuck to him for the whole race and then even managed to overtake him. this was my first pole position in life, my first lead and my first struggle for the top rank. Although I drove around the top ranks with formula 4, it was only within my category and in reality I was somewhere in the middle of the starting field. Today the situation was completely different for me,” commented Václav Šafář on his race.
The fourth rank belonged to Kurt Böhlem and the important points for the fifth rank were scored by Andrea Cola, who got closer to the interim leader of the ranking Paolo Brajnik.
Another victory in the F3 Trophy class was added to the account of Bartolomiej Mirecki followed by Vladimír Netušil and Tomáš Chabr.
His premiere start in F4 class with L21 Formula was turned to victory by Tom Beckhäuser, representing the Charouz Racing System and participating in the German series ADAC F4. The second rank was occupied by Tomáš Korený and the third by Stefan Fürtbauer.
F3
1. Sandro Zeller
2. Václav Šafář
3. Philipp Regensperger
F3 Trophy
1. Bartolomiej Mirecki
2. Vladimír Netušil
3. Tomáš Chabr
F4
1. Tom Beckhäuser
2. Tomáš Korený
3. Štefan Fürtbauer
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