A very strong showing from Douglas Motorsport in the second half of the British F3 championship saw Kiern Jewiss take 4th place overall, missing out on third place by only 12 points.
The final round of races took place at Donington Park at the weekend (September 14th and 15th).
Another impressive performance over the weekend from Jewiss saw him rack up 2 second place finishes and make up a total of 9 places in the reverse grid race. Qualifying in second place for races 1 and 3, Jewiss battled for the win in both races but had to settle for second place. Both races saw a significant gap back to third position, adding to how impressive Jewiss’ performance was.
The reverse grid race saw Jewiss start from 14th on the grid. After lap one he was up to 9th position and by the end of the race after penalties for other cars were take into account he was awarded P5.
Here’s what Kiern Jewiss had to say about races 1 and 3….
Race 1
He was very quick, we were matching each other’s times in the first half of the race. I made a little mistake through the chicane and that’s why the gap stretched out a bit but I managed to come back at him. I was pushing hard enough to try and get some pressure back and try and force him into a mistake, but he drove a perfect race. But I’m happy with some big points.
There’s quite a gap to third, and I think Ayrton would need a DNF but I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and at the end of the day if we finish with two podiums this weekend, from where we started the year to now, we’d be really happy.
Race 3
The second half of the year has been very very strong and I’m happy. We certainly struggled in the first half, with pace but also with luck, I didn’t have much luck and it cost us a lot of points. To come back now on the podium nearly always in race one and three, it shows how much we’ve developed with the car as well. So I’m very happy and hopefully people can see how much we’ve come on throughout the year.
I think I had my nose in front for about a hundred metres but I was on the outside so I couldn’t really hold it. But I gave it a good go while I had the chance but I enjoyed the race. Finishing on the podium is all I could have done in the race so I’m happy.
Qualifying in P3 for races 1 and 3, Ulysse De Pauw’s pace further emphasised the continuous improvements made by the Douglas Motorsport team through the championship season.
De Pauw didn’t enjoy the success he probably deserved in the races over the final weekend, finishing 5th in race 1 but falling back a number of places after a 10 second penalty was awarded against him for contact with another car during the race. He finished in 9th in race 2 and recorded his only DNF of the season in race 3 after going wheel to wheel with Ayrton Simmons and coming off worse. Not the best weekend for him after a number of weekends of impressive results but it doesn’t take away from the continuous improvements made throughout the season.
