Rinus VeeKay left the first round of the Asian Formula 3 Winter Series at Buriram in Thailand as championship leader after a “disastrous” weekend for Dan Ticktum.
Red Bull junior Ticktum started the first race from pole, but was passed by Absolute Racing’s Yifei Ye and then Hitech GP team-mate Alessandro Ghiretti on the first lap after locking up. He did stick in third though, leading VeeKay and Akash Nandy at the end of the first lap.
An off on the second lap put Ticktum down to fifth, but repassed Pinnacle Motorsport driver Nandy for fourth a lap later.
Ghiretti then started attacking Ye, but a move that put both of them onto the run off allowed VeeKay through. At the last corner Ghiretti went side-by-side with team-mate VeeKay, putting both wide and bringing Ye and Ticktum back into the lead fight.
Through the first few turns of the next lap they were three wide, with Ye taking the grass rather than the track on the run to the Turn 2 hairpin. Ticktum had the inside line, and his late braking move briefly put him in the lead. At the next set of corners VeeKay and Ticktum duelled it out, with the latter coming off worse and losing second to Ghiretti.
Ye soon dropped out with radiator damage, and was followed a lap later by Ticktum pitting with a similar issue.
Pavan Ravishankar came through from ninth in the closing stages to complete a Hitech 1-2-3 behind VeeKay and Ghiretti, aided by a further technical issue for Amaury Cordeel as well a spate of penalties with Eshan Pieris and Akash Nandy among those affected.
With fastest laps setting the race two grid, VeeKay had pole position, and made the lead his at the hairpin on the opening lap after briefly losing it to Ticktum.
Ticktum got up the inside at the hairpin on lap three, but VeeKay carried speed around the outside and off the track to keep the lead.
VeeKay was then able to build a lead as Ticktum fell into the clutches of Ye, who got past into Turn 1 with eight minutes to go. Worse was to come for Ticktum, who received a penalty for track limits abuse that relegated him to sixth, behind David Schumacher, Ravishankar and Ghiretti.
Ticktum started race three back on pole position, but lost out on the win to Ye, who again made the better start.
In a further repeat of race one, Ghiretti also got past Ticktum on the opening lap, but the Frenchman then immediately slowed into retirement and triggered a safety car.
After biding his time following the restart, Ticktum closed up on Ye in the last 10 minutes and launched an attack around the outside of the hairpin, but ran deep.
Ye rebuffed two further challenges before taking the chequered flag, with VeeKay confirming his championship lead close behind in third.?Cordeel held off Schumacher for fourth with?Tomoki Takahashi finishing sixth.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Rinus VeeKay Hitech GP 31m21.196s
2 Alessandro Ghiretti Hitech GP +12.468s
3 Pavan Ravishankar Hitech GP +20.732s
4 Akash Nandy Pinnacle Motorsport +25.170s
5 Eshan Pieris Absolute Racing +28.404s
6 Amaury Cordeel Pinnacle Motorsport +33.124s
7 David Schumacher Pinnacle Motorsport +39.358s
8?Vivien Keszthelyi BlackArts Racing +52.667s
9?Tairoku Yamaguchi B-MAX Racing +53.735s
Ret Dan Ticktum Hitech GP
Pole: Ticktum, 1m32.044s
Fastest lap: VeeKay, 1m33.262s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 VeeKay 31m28.037s
2 Yifei Ye Absolute Racing +1.019s
3 Schumacher +10.148s
4 Ravishankar +11.868s
5 Ghiretti +13.644s
6 Ticktum +15.899s
7 Tomoki Takahashi Super License +25.029s
8 Nandy +28.758s
9 Cordeel +34.284s
10 Yamaguchi +54.182s
FL: VeeKay, 1m33.227s
Race 3 (19 laps)
1 Ye 30m49.025s
2 Ticktum +0.485s
3 VeeKay +1.416s
4 Cordeel +11.273s
5 Schumacher +16.892s
6 Takahashi +20.919s
7 Nandy +21.065s
8 Ravishankar +21.924s
9 Keszthelyi +56.573s
10 Yamaguchi +59.723s
P: Ticktum, 1m31.565s
FL: Ye, 1m33.313s
Championship Standings
1?VeeKay 65? ?2 Ye 43 ??3 Ravishankar 31 ??4 Schumacher 31 ??5 Ghiretti 28 ??6 Ticktum 26 ??7?Cordeel 22? ?8 Nandy 22 ??9?Takahashi 14 ??10?Pieris 10