ALEX FINISHED 11th IN DIFFICULT WEEKEND
Silverstone Circuit, UK; Sunday 11th July 1999 ; Malaysia's Formula 1 hope Alex Yoong, managed to improve only one position from his 12th on the grid to finish 11th in round 9 of the 1999 Autosport British F3 Championship held at the Silverstone circuit yesterday.
The weekend had always been expected to be a difficult for Alex as he had to work with a new team, Graff Racing from France who are not in the British Championship but had to be commissioned by Alex's regular team ADR at the last moment to run Alex in a one-off deal as ADR could not get their car ready for Alex on time.
In addition to that, Alex was the only driver in the international championship to miss the full day FOTA test the week before the race, thereby missing the crucial outing to find the optimum settings for his car.
"I am disappointed for my supporters back in Malaysia obviously, as I could not deliver the results desired. I drove well and worked very hard in the race but the odds against the team were too great. I have no complaints against the team as they are a top team from the French Championship and they also worked very hard for me." Said Alex.
Alex had a good start but so did most of the cars in front of him and he maintained 11th position throughout the first half of the 15 lap race. After gaining another place when Andrew Kirkaldy of Stewart Racing made a mistake, Alex remained in 10th till the last lap.
In the last lap, Alex tried an overtaking move on 9th position Michael Bentwood which did not work out and went wide to lose his 10th position to Doug Bell.
The race was won by Britain's Marc Hynes from Manor Motorsports with fellow Briton Jenson Button second and Brazilian Luciano Burti third.
The outing for Alex after missing round 7 and 8 was considered as very useful preparation for his first ever F3000 race this coming weekend at the Enna Pergusa circuit at Sicily in Italy on the 18th July 1999.
Alex will be driving for the championship's current leading team Monaco Motorsports of Italy in the Italian F3000 championship.
Alex will leave for Milan,Italy tomorrow to have his seat fitted and will then travel to Enna, a town in the volcanic central region of Sicily for a test on Wednesday prior to qualifying on Saturday the 17th of July 1999.