A happy Hywel Lloyd reckons his Dallara Mercedes is flying ahead of this weekend’s Formula Three International Series meeting at Oulton Park.
The 26-year-old racing driver from Corwen made the most of his Monza experience with three storming drives at the home of the Italian Grand Prix in the championship’s opening meeting.
He overcame qualifying problems to finish seventh in the first two races of the weekend to be among the points and then produced another spectacular charge in the final race after a starting grid mishap.
Lloyd, headhunted by the new Chinese-backed Sino Vision Racing team last winter, said: “The car was really good. We had some issues with grip in qualifying but we analysed them and sorted out what was wrong and we were flying in the races.”
Lloyd was back in 16th place on the grid in the first race of the weekend but as Monza’s speed caught out some of the drivers he kept his cool to work his way through the field.
“I think some were surprised by just how quick it is there,” he said: “So for us it was a case of keeping our nose clean and picking our way through and we were delighted to end up seventh.
“That meant we were seventh on the grid for the second race but we dropped back to 11th on the first lap before coming through again to seventh and we were really pleased with the way the car performed.”
The qualifying problems of the previous day meant Lloyd was 18th on the grid for the final race and bad suddenly got worse as the car in front of him stalled as he blasted off, leaving him to take rapid evasive action which in turn stalled his own car.
“We were stone cold last by the time we got going again,” he said: “I could hardly see anyone but we picked up the pace again and by the finish we were 15th and lapping only a couple of tenths of a second slower than the leaders.”
Lloyd’s Sino Vision team-mate, Hong Kong driver Adderly Fong, finished 13th, 15th and 19th over the weekend and it was a steep learning curve for him but Lloyd said: “I think he enjoyed it although he finished down the field.
“He hadn’t raced at Monza before and it’s a pretty special place but we bith had a good weekend and the team have come away from it pretty happy with the way things went.
“It’s important to get into the points as quickly as you can and that gives us some confidence going into the next race.”
That will be on a visit to ‘home’ ground this weekend at Oulton Park, near Chester, where Lloyd expects a very different challenge to that of Monza.
He said: “It’s a lot more technical with the corners coming at you thick and fast and it asks you different questions but it’s just another race though it will be nice to see a few familiar faces and it will be good to have more local support there too.”
Qualifying at Oulton Park takes place on Saturday with the first of the three races in the afternoon and then on Easter Monday Lloyd and the rest of the drivers have two more races.
The weekend will also feature two hour-long British GT Championship races featuring Audi R8s, Aston Martin DB9s and Ferrari 430s – for more information go to http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/oulton-park/index.asp
For more on Hywel Lloyd and Sino Vision Racing go to http://www.f3racing.co.uk
TV coverage of the Monza races will be on Channel 4 at 7.30am this Sunday, April 23, and also on satellite on Motors TV UK 1958 the same day and repeats.
