Jump start, drive-through penalty and points: Daniel Abt lived through some turbulent days on his GP3 premiere at Barcelona. After his brilliant display in the Formula 1 support programme he fully deserved scoring his first points of the season after finishing sixth in the second race.
Abt started the second of the 16 ‘star of tomorrow’ races on Sunday morning from 13th position. The young driver from the Allgäu region attacked from the green light and immediately forced his way into the top ten. Despite the cool temperatures he fought many hot battles for the points – especially with Alex Brundle the son of former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle. However, Abt was unperturbed by the Briton’s attacks and defended his sixth position and, in doing so, collected his first four GP3 points at the chequered flag. “The speed was again super and very, very close to the leaders. However, I didn’t have much in reserve as my front wing and the steering were bent after a light collision,” said Abt.
The fantastic opening weekend was only soured by a drive-through penalty which resulted in 13th place in the first race. Late on Saturday afternoon, with the weather absolutely perfect for racing, the 19-year old racer from Kempten made a lightning start in his 280 hp Dallara-Renault from sixth position on the grid and actually took the lead before the first corner. Abt even managed to extend his lead to a half-a-second before the ever watchful eyes of the Race Director decided that the Lotus driver had jumped the start and gave him the expected drive-through penalty. After biting the bullet Abt rejoined the track at the end of the 26 car field which meant that a top-ten position was totally out of reach.
“Unfortunately the jump start spoilt the weekend somewhat,” said Abt. “I was afraid that the clutch would burn out so I thought it better to start.” Father Hans-Jürgen Abt, Team Boss of DTM race team ABT Sportsline, was satisfied with his son’s performance. “It all looked very good to me,” reckoned the Allgäu man.
Abt demonstrated his class before the first race. The ambitious youngster from the Allgäu underlined that he can run at the front in the competitive field after recording times only 0.276 seconds (free practice, 5th place) and 0.303 seconds (qualifying, 7th place) off the fastest lap. Because a competitor was penalised for infringing the rules and moved down the grid, Abt subsequently moved up a place on the grid. However, despite the respectable result he was very critical of himself after qualifying: “It’s very close and tiny mistakes are decisive – but seventh place is not what I expected.” Things should run much better during the next race weekend in Monaco (24–26 May). Abt: “In Monaco I’ll be on the attack again from the word go.”