FIRST QUALIFYING SESSION RED- FLAGGED TWICE; MAWER ON POLE
Wakefield Park, Qualifying 1 - 31/5/03

F3's first qualifying session was marred by a heavy accident at turn one. James Cressey suffered brake problems on the main straight, and crashed heavily into the tyre wall. Medical attention was required, but fortunately Cressey was not seriously injured, and after a trip to the medical center, he returned to the paddock.
The session opened with Jones and Caruso quickly down into the 55's with Cressey, Reindler and Hackett in the 56's. Jones was setting the pace, and followed up with a 54.9516. Caruso was second with Cressey third, followed by BRM's Reindler, and PSC's Kenny Habul, who was having a good session. Peter Hackett got the Dallara Sodemo 301Renault working, and went to second with a 55.122, pushing Caruso down to third. Barton Mawer seemed to be taking his time, and was well down in tenth place.
In the Yokohama Trophy class, Chris Coombs was quickest, with Maddocks, Borg and Choon following. An unhappy Rees was having a confidence crisis. He seemed to have trouble coming to terms with the Scud Racing '96 Dallara Toyota on the new Yokohama tyre compound which he has not driven on before.
Mid session, the red flag was brought out for the Cressey accident. Coombs was also off the track and his car was stopped with an engine misfire problem. While the medical intervention vehicles attended to James Cressey, Coombs' car was also removed from the circuit.
When the session resumed at 10.20am, Caruso, went to the top of the sheets, and Barton Mawer started producing the times expected of him. The order was Caruso, Jones, Hackett, Mawer, Cressey and Gurr.
But Mawer was not to be denied, and he put in his best lap late in the session, a superb 54.7022 to take provisional pole.
Darren Palmer's bad weekend continued, with a stretched or broken throttle cable finally ending his session. With his car stopped on the infield, the red flag was again brought out, and the session was deemed to be over.
Mawer was on pole for race one, with Michael Caruso beside him on the front row, Jones and Hackett on row two.
In the Yokohama Trophy class, David Borg found the groove on his very last flying lap, and took pole in a 59.1690. Coombs time of 59.8112 was good enough for second, with Maddocks in third.

Press Release, Australian F3-Association

RESULT