Prema Powerteam is ready to be a championship contending team as the 2009 Italian Formula 3 Championship is approaching the last two rounds of the season. Last weekend, the series approached Imola for its sixth race of the year and Daniel Campos scored some valuable points, that together with a bad day of championship leader Daniel Zampieri allowed the squad to be strongly back into contention.
Campos proved strong since the start, clocking a stunning pole position and leaving Mexican rival Pablo Sanchez 4 tenths of a second behind. Team-mate Francesco Castellacci suffered from a rougher day, as his session was conditioned by set-up problem and an early spin, and took 10th.
On Race 1, Campos had a good start, but Sanchez snatched the lead at Tamburello. The fight for victory ended on the spot, as the Spaniard elected to focus on points ending up in 2nd. Castellacci defended himself in the hard fight started in the midpack, and captured the 13th spot. On Race 2, started with the reversed top-6 grid, Campos ended up in 6th, while Castellacci was blocked by a slower car, losing positions and taking 12th.
“This is an incredibly tough year – told Team Manager Grazia Rosin – it’s really easy to fall off the championship fight. As happened at Varano, Campos scored a podium finish and trimmed his gap from the championship leader to 13 points, scoring a spectacular pole position. It’s a bit of a shame for Castellacci, who had a good potential that couldn’t be expressed due to a concatenation of many small problems. We hope to see him fight for the top at Vallelunga, on the next 20th of September.”
The Italian Formula 3 Championship stopped at Varano last weekend, as the Italian short track hosted the 5th round of the 2009 series. The track near Parma brought Prema Powerteam back to the leading pack in standings thanks to a double points finish scored by Daniel Campos. The Spaniard took off from 2nd thanks to a great qualifying performance. He then kept his position until checkered, trailing championship leader Daniel Zampieri. Francesco Castellacci had a positive race too, ending up in 8th after starting from row number 5. On a crash-filled race 2, Campos came back strong in 4th, while Castellacci ended up in 10th.
The weekend of Prema Powerteam in the Italian Formula 3 Championship at Mugello started in a fine way, as Daniel Campos-Hull took his maiden pole in the series and Francesco Castellacci made his way to the third spot. In the two races, held on Saturday and Sunday, the hopes to celebrate in-style ended right after the start. In the first race, Campos suffered from a bad start, and was then caught in a crash, ending his day on the spot. Castellacci proved to have good potential, and kept 2nd place all-race long. After an attack by Zampieri, he successfully ended up in 3rd.
