Welsh racing driver Hywel Lloyd saw his hopes dashed at Rockingham as bad luck continued to dog his Formula Three International Series campaign.
The 26-year-old from Corwen had made a storming start to the main race of the weekend meeting when a chance collision sent him spinning into a deep gravel run-off area.
Although he had managed to keep his engine running there was no escape from there for Lloyd’s Dallara Mercedes and he was forced to retire.
That was desperate after he has seared away from the starting lights round Rockingham’s banked first corner to catapult himself from tenth on the grid to fifth.
He said: “The car felt really good. We had tweaked it a bit after the first two races and just going to the grid it felt right and we got a really good start, up to fifth and I was feeling really confident.
“I was just looking for a good clean first lap and minding my own business on turn four when I felt a big clout on the right rear wheel. It just sent me into a spin and off the track.
“The trouble was it was on one of tyhe only places on the circuit where there is a gravel run-off and I couldn’t quite get the car straight to be able to drive it through and then one of the other cars came off and locked into me as well.
“It was Scott Pye that hit me and it was just one of those things, no blame to him. It was a racing incident unlike the previous meeting at Spa where I though the Brazilian Yann Cunha was at fault.
“It wasn’t really a big hit but it was so slippery after the rain and I was on full lock turning right so the car was quite loaded and it just spun sideways and that was it for me.
“I enjoy the longer races, over 40 minutes, but the last two have ended far too soon and it’s just so frustrating.”
Lloyd had felt that weekend was going well up to then as he had picked up points in both earlier races after qualifying 10th for the main race and 12th for the first race on Saturday.
That saw him pilot his car through to a final position of tenth in dry conditions on a narrow Rockingham circuit which is quick but offers few chances to pass.
That earned him tenth spot in the second race opf the weekend, on Sunday morning, and conditions were much changed after heavy overnight rain.
Lloyd had taken his car up to eighth but a mistake on the final lap cost him one place but had given him and his Sino Vision Racing team an idea on how to tweak the car’s set-up.
He said: “That seemed to be working a treat and I was really looking for a top five, maybe even a podium, until that incident but it’s just one of those things. They happen in racing but maybe next time it will be my turn for a bit of luck.”
The man to benefit was championship leader Brazilian Felipe Nasr whose third place in the final race clinched the title for the Carlin driver – the fourth consecutive year the powerful Carlin team have supplied the champion.
Lloyd will now take a weekend off to watch his fiancée, Bronwen Roberts, also from Corwen and cousin of Derby County and Wales defender Gareth Roberts, compete in this weekend’s Tatton Park Triathlon in aid of the Wrexham Maelor Hospital Special Care Baby Unit.
Then it’s back to work ahead of the F3 event at Donington Park on the weekend of September 24 and 25 before the final meeting of the F3 International Series at Silverstone on October 8 and 9.
Highlights of the meeting at Rockingham are on Channel 4 at 7am on Saturday, September 10, and on Motors TV at 7.25pm the same day, repeated at various times.
For more on Hywel Lloyd visit www.f3racing.co.uk
