MIXED WEATHER AND RESULTS AT SPA

Josh Dufek battled through wet conditions and on-track furore at Spa-Francorchamps for the penultimate round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. Running off the back of a frustrating double-header in the racing calendar, the tenacious driver has full focus on using the summer break to regroup and end his season on a high. 

The historic Spa-Francorchamps is 7.004km long circuit which weaves through the Ardennes forest features the infamous uphill Eau Rouge-Raidillon complex, leading on to punishing long straights offering up a thrilling yet technical challenge for all who race there. With the weather throwing in changeable conditions as is typical style for the Belgian circuit, the Austrian driver persevered through any curveball thrown his way. 

Qualifying struggles

After a wet session in Free Practice earlier in the day, the track was dry for qualifying. As it became clear the team’s improvement in pace in Hungary last weekend appeared to not translate to the Belgian circuit, the AIX Racing squad battled to make the most of their package when qualifying got underway on Friday afternoon. With full determination and pushing to the absolute limit, Josh made his way round the undulating track but unfortunately he was one of many drivers who had their lap times deleted for track limits in the early parts of the session. 

Ready to put in a hot lap in the final minutes of the session, luck proved not to be on Josh’s side as most of the field slowed to a snail’s pace in an attempt to gain a good track position for their own laps, a sight to behold as a pack of 15-20 cars swarmed together and halted anyone really making any further progress. Without putting in a representative lap time to be satisfied with Josh had his work cut out for him with a P24 starting position for both races. 

Disappointed with the way the session had unfolded, the Austrian driver focused on making the most of his overtaking opportunities when racing got underway. 

“It really was a messy session. From the first run we were caught in traffic really, I believe we could’ve gained a few tenths through some improvements on my side and tweaking the set up. But between traffic and yellow flags we didn’t get much clean running. I think tomorrow will be wet so hopefully we can bring across the knowledge we gained in Free Practice. We’ll have to see what we can salvage from our suboptimal starting position.”

Pushing through 

On a rain-soaked track on Saturday morning, there was an added level of difficulty as the pack lined up for the Sprint Race. Keeping out of trouble, Josh managed to hold position through the opening stages before the safety car made an early appearance. Battling hard at the restart, he was able to defend advances from his rivals, until he was forced to skate across the gravel. 

“The launch was good and I was able to fight for position. Then I got stuck on Taponen’s sidepod, my car was fully lodged on his and he carried me round the corner. I had full steering lock and was able to pull free but that left me to head into the gravel, thankfully I carried on.”

Unfortunately despite his best efforts the pace and technical issues proved to hinder any forward progress in the race. 

“Throughout the race the oil temperature was running too high and it didn’t improve so I had to really nurse that as best I could. We’ll look at that as a team and try to fix it ahead of the Feature Race”

Battling up the order

Primed for battle on Sunday morning, Josh lined up on the grid ready to take any opportunities that came his way. He did so almost immediately, keeping himself out of trouble and climbing up 5 positions at the start and avoiding the spinning car of Gabriele Minì in the process. 

With pressure from Stenshorne behind, Josh held off advances until his rival made a marginal move to the inside which forced the Austrian to take to the gravel and lose positions. Able to get back to the track relatively unscathed he carried on with his eyes trained on taking back the positions lost. 

But when an Lap 3 incident saw Stenshorne spin at Stavelot, Taponen took avoiding action into the path of Josh and regrettably the pair narrowly came together with a slight tap that sent Taponen into the path of Stenshorne’s stationary car. 

“I had to avoid a few collisions and Stenshorne made me lose positions as he went for the overtake and ran me wide. On Lap 3 I was down the inside of Taponen, he saw the incident before me and I think he took to the brakes before I had chance to react as I saw the crash last moment. I caught him and sent him spinning, but thankfully it was just a racing incident.”

With three Safety Car appearances across the race, from that point on the race entered a stop-start nature that halted any true racing speed battles to be resumed. But keeping his nose clean for the remainder of the race, Josh managed to cross the line in P15 but was later promoted to P14 following post race penalties. 

“A frustrating weekend as we were struggling with pace a little bit. We gained back positions in the Feature Race which was good, but it’s not the way we wanted to go into the summer break. Hopefully we can come back stronger in Monza”

With motorsport entering it’s summer break, Josh will regroup and recharge in the rest period before FIA Formula 3 returns for the final round in Monza on 30th August–1st September.