Alice Powell overcame a problematic weekend to take an impressive win in Race Two at Brands Hatch in the F3 Cup, to hold onto her championship lead.
Alice’s weekend started badly, with a head gasket going on in her engine on Friday, which led to her Mark Bailey Racing team to travel back to their base to pick up a spare car. Her first experience of this car was in qualifying, where she managed to post the 4th fastest time. However, the engine in the spare car was 4-5 MPH slower than her previous engine, due to its age.
Race One saw Alice get a good start to put pressure on Tristan Cliffe in P3. From then on, it was a procession, as fastest laps were exchanged between the top 4. Powell crossed the line in P4, but set the 2nd fastest time of the race, meaning she lined up P2 on the grid for Race Two, “ After qualifying, we knew the engine wasn’t strong, so we made a couple of changes to try and help our straight line speed and pull out of the corners. It improved slightly, but not enough, so we took a risk for R2, by taking several holes of wing off to help us up on the straights”.
The change did just that! Alice got an excellent start to beat Tristan Cliffe into turn one and take a lights to flag victory, and keeping herself at the top of the F3 Cup standings, “It was a huge risk taking of the wing, as we knew it would be a handful round the corners, but I managed to control that and have a mistake free race to take the win. Saying that, it was not easy at all, as Alex Craven kept the pressure on me throughout the race. It was a special win and I have to dedicate this to the team for their hard work on getting the spare car ready. Hopefully we can get my engine sorted for the next race, so I can be back in my own car!!”
