The second round of the GP3 Series took place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria from July 1-3, as usual as a support event for the Formula One weekend. With a successful race here last year, gaining 7th place, Thai racing driver Sandy Kraokaew Stuvik was confident he could once again gain some useful points in the championship. The Red Bull Ring circuit has been fitting to Stuvik’s driving style and he was excited to get the weekend underway.
The Thai driver qualified in 12th position, a less than ideal place to begin the weekend, but thankfully the Red Bull Ring circuit lends itself well to overtaking so there would be chances to gain a few positions come the first race.
In Race 1 Stuvik had a good start and managed to pick up a few positions right away, and as the race settled the young Thai was in 9th position. A few laps before the end of the race however, the ever-growing clouds above the circuit started to drop rain on the tricky Turn 2 hairpin, and Stuvik unfortunately lost a position trying to negotiate the wet corner on slick tires, finishing the race in 10th position and gaining 1 point in the championship.
Race 2 took place on a wet Sunday morning and the race started behind the safety car due to the damp conditions. The entire GP3 field would proceed to follow the safety car for 10 laps before race control deemed the circuit safe enough to be raced on.
As the race began Stuvik’s main focus was to stay on track, as the challenging conditions saw many incidents and mistakes throughout the field. After a strenuous but short GP3 race, the Thai driver managed to finish in 8th position, collecting another championship point.
“Definitely one of the strangest races I’ve done, with most of it being behind the safety car, in total I think we raced about 3 or 4 laps uninterrupted,” said Stuvik later. “The conditions were very taxing and there was no visibility, so you couldn’t even see the car in front of you. I’m glad we could finish the race and collect another point. Now I’m looking forward to Silverstone where I will improve from my performance last year. Together with Trident we have some interesting set-ups to try in order to close in on the cars in the front.”
The next race for Sandy Stuvik will be this coming weekend at the home of British motorsport: Silverstone.
