Sakurai Secures British F3 Rookie Class Title.

Kotaro Sakurai has been confirmed as the 2011 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Rookie Class Championship after the first race at Donington Park.

The seventeen year old Japanese driver secured his twelfth class victory of the season during the first race of the weekend at Donington Park to secure the crown and with it, become the first Japanese driver to secure a piece of British F3 silverware since Takumo Sato secured the outright title in 2001.

Sakurai secured his first class victory of the season at Snetterton and since the Paul Ricard weekend, he has had the class to himself – apart from Rockingham – and throughout the season, the Japanese racer has been constantly improving compared to how he was at Monza at the start of the season.

“I am very pleased to win the title this year,” said Kotaro. “I really want to thank Hitech Racing and all of my sponsors for supporting me this year. It’s a real pleasure to have won the Rookie title.

“This year has been brilliant training for me, we are making steps forward all the time and it is looking very positive. Looking to next year, I am feeling very motivated and would like to look at driving a championship class car in British Formula 3 next year.”

Svendsen-Cook Secures Second Win of 2011 at Donington Park.

Rupert Svendsen-Cook (Carlin) did his chances of finishing second in the overall Championship no harm at all as he secured his second victory of the 2011 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series campaign at Donington Park.

Suffolk based Svendsen-Cook led all the way during round twenty five of the season, having qualified on Pole Position earlier in the day. The victory was secured after an immaculate start and opening lap, which saw him, pull out a second’s gap over team-mate Carlos Huertas, who was also his closest challenger.

After twenty one laps around the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit, Svendsen-Cook has pulled away from Huertas by 3.2s and afterwards, he said:  “I got a fantastic start; the car had a really good feel throughout the race. I wasn’t so happy with the balance of the car in qualifying, but we made a few changes and the car was bang-on for the race. Everything was under control and I’m happy to get another victory to add to the one I scored at Monza at the start of the year.

“I definitely think that there is more to come from me this weekend. It’s going to be difficult starting race two from eighth, but I think that from third in race three we can get a podium.”

Rounding out the top three in the opening race was Jack Harvey, who completed an all Carlin podium. Huertas made the better start and he slotted in ahead of Harvey. Harvey chased hard but wasn’t able to find a way past as he had to settle for third, and his fourth podium finish of the season.

Carlin locked out the top three but only one of their other three drivers saw the chequered flag – both Kevin Magnussen and newly crowned Champion Felipe Nasr failed to finish. The two came to blows at the hairpin on lap two and both pitted – Magnussen rejoined the race, set a new lap record before calling it a day.

Nasr, meanwhile, had to settle for the Daytona 24 Hour drive he had secured via Sunoco, due to his qualifying performances.

This left Jazeman Jaafar as the only remaining Carlin driver in contention and he finished inside the top ten, fifth overall behind Scott Pye (Double R Racing), but ahead of Pye’s newly recruited team-mate, GP3 Champion Valtteri Bottas.

Pipo Derani was on course to make it three Double R Cars inside the top ten until he had contact with T-Sports Menasheh Idafar, and the Brazilian dropped down four positions, and the incident is under review by the race stewards.

Idafar secured seventh, ahead of Harry Tincknell (Fortec), Will Buller (Fortec) and Max Snegirev (Hitech) – for Snegirev, it was his first point’s finish of the season.

Tomorrow morning’s sprint race will see Tincknell on Pole Position as the top eight drivers were reversed.

Three drivers for Racing Engineering at Jerez test.

Racing Engineering has confirmed the identity of the drivers who will test for them in the forthcoming GP2 test at Jerez, Spain. The two day test marks the first action for the field since the season finale at Monza two weeks ago.

The test, being held over the 28/29 September will provide all of the teams a chance to test some new, up and coming drivers as they look ahead to the 2012 campaign.

The 4.428km Circuito de Jerez is located near the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera is South-western Spain and it marks the home circuit for Racing Engineering, as they are based in Sanlucar de Barrameda. Jerez is the former host of both the Spanish Grand Prix as well as the European Grand Prix and it has become a popular test venue during the winter months.

Three different drivers will test for the team over the two days: the opening day will see Fabio Leimer and Rodolfo Gonzalez in the car while the second day will see Gonzalez replaced by Rupert Svendsen-Cook.

Leimer has previous experience of GP2, having raced for Rapax this season – he secured a podium at Monza behind Christian Vietoris – he came up the ranks via Formula BMW, Formula Renault and International Formula Master before making his GP2 debut in the 2009/2010 GP2 Asia series.

The twenty one year old Swiss driver secured his maiden GP2 victory at Barcelona during the 2010 Sprint race and he repeated the feat in 2011. Between those victories, he finished fifth in the 2010/2011 GP2 Asia series.

Gonzalez also has prior GP2 experience. The twenty five year old Venezuelan raced for Ocean Racing Technology in 2011. Prior to making his GP2 debut during the third round of the 2008/2009 GP2 Asia Series, Gonzalez started off in Formula Renault before competing in both the British and European Formula 3 series.

He has yet to secure a top three finish during his two seasons in the series but he has proved that he has the potential to run at the front.

The third driver, Svendsen-Cook is currently competing in British Formula 3, having made his debut in 2010. His run out at Jerez will mark the twenty one year olds first experience of the GP2 series.

Svendsen-Cook, who is of Norwegian heritage started off in karts before switching to Formula BMW. He moved into British F3 for 2010, and in his first season secured a victory and four other podium finishes. He currently sits sixth in the 2011 Drivers’ Championship with two race weekends to go.

The 2011 GP2 Series saw Racing Engineering finish third overall in the Teams’ Championship and they are looking forward to giving Leimer, Gonzalez and Svendsen-Cook their opportunity in their race winning car.