OP Jordan King defied his rookie status to serve notice of his intent in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship as he made a bold bid for victory in round three of the 2013 campaign at Hockenheim – leaving his rivals in no doubt that he is every inch a serious contender for the top step of the podium this year.
Having claimed a rostrum finish at Hockenheim in the 2012 Formula Renault Northern European Cup and quipping that he ‘always enjoys circuits I do well at’, King returned to the demanding German Grand Prix venue confident in his ability to continue his impressive march up the F3 pecking-order and vie for the leading positions.
The 19-year old laid down an early marker by lapping third-quickest in both free practice sessions – fastest of the eight British drivers in attendance and a mere tenth of a second adrift of the outright benchmark in the fiercely-competitive, 29-strong field – but on a drying track surface in qualifying for races one and two, the talented young Warwickshire ace confessed to taking too much out of his tyres before conditions had reached their best.
The upshot was eighth on the starting grid for race one – highest of the five Carlin entries – and a disgruntled 12th for race two, stripped of the lap time that should have placed him sixth after he was deemed to have exceeded the track limits in his Volkswagen-powered Dallara single-seater.
“There was no real consistency in the weather weekend-long,” King lamented. “In fact, we’ve not had either a completely dry or fully wet race meeting this year, and for a rookie, that’s particularly tough, because what I need above all is experience. That’s an area in which the second-year F3 drivers have a big advantage over me; on their first lap out of the pits, they’re immediately ‘on it’, whereas it’s taking me a little longer to find my feet.”
The highly-rated Stoneleigh-based speed demon nevertheless wasted no time at all in getting down to business in qualifying for Sunday’s third outing, with a superb display seeing him hold the top spot for much of the session. Ultimately, he found himself pipped by a hair’s breadth by guesting team-mate Daniil Kyvat – a Red Bull Junior driver accustomed to racing one step further up the motorsport ladder in GP3 – and the Russian had needed to bolt on a fresh set of rubber in order to do so.
“It was obviously disappointing to have it snatched away like that so close to the end and by just five hundredths of a second,” King reflected of a result that on any other weekend would have been a sensational maiden F3 pole, “but whilst we missed out on the one-lap glory, I knew I would be in a better position for the race than Daniil tyre-wise – and I was still fastest of the championship regulars.”
Indeed he was, and the McLaren Autosport Award finalist, British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) SuperStar and MSA Academy member acknowledged that it was quite a boost to have outperformed adversaries of such a tremendously high calibre, including protégés from three title-winning F1 outfits.
Following a bright start in a damp opening encounter, King admitted to making a few errors in the slippery conditions – a reminder that despite his scintillating raw pace, he remains on a learning curve this year – as he fell from sixth to 11th, but a more composed effort in race two yielded ninth at the chequered flag. The best, however, was yet to come, as the 19-year-old saved his final flourish until Sunday.
“I got a good launch to move past Daniil, but Felix Rosenqvist got away even better and leapfrogged both of us, which left me second,” he recounted of race three. “I received a nudge from behind into Turn Two for the first time, which cost me my momentum down the following straight and Félix Serrallés was able to tow past me. The safety car then came out for a shunt further down the field, and at the re-start I re-passed Serrallés on the brakes into the hairpin.
“I subsequently caught and overtook Rosenqvist into Turn Five, but I was probably a touch over-ambitious and couldn’t quite make the move stick. I ran wide on the exit, which lost me the lead and allowed Serrallés to get a run on me too and he had the racing line for the next corner.
“I kept tucked in close behind him, but Daniil towed past me down the straight, and if I hadn’t backed off when we got to the following corner, there would have been a collision. I then made a small mistake that enabled Raffaello Marciello to overtake me and relegate me to fifth, but he went off the track to do it, and I was amazed he wasn’t penalised for the move – that was extremely frustrating.”
Be that as it may, in such esteemed company – racing wheel-to-wheel against three of the top four contenders in the standings – King more than held his own, and setting the fastest lap of the race underlined his outstanding potential. As the Hugo Boss brand ambassador turns his attentions now towards the next outing on the calendar around Brands Hatch’s short Indy Circuit later this month, he forecasts that both qualifying and fitness will be absolutely key on home turf – but then, he has yet to be found wanting in either of those areas so far.
“It was encouraging to prove that the speed is there, but obviously disappointing that we didn’t come away with the win that had looked to be on the cards and that we clearly had the pace to achieve,” he mused in conclusion. “We’ve known we’ve been capable of this kind of form all season, though, and there’s definitely more to come – so I’m sure there will be further opportunities to fight for victory in the upcoming races...”
You can keep up-to-date with Jordan’s latest career news and results at www.jordanking.co.uk and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/42jordanking.
