A bumper field of 22 cars entered for the weekend at Donington Park meant the 20-minute qualifying session was a tense, but exciting, one to witness. In the end, the times were incredibly close for the whole field with Voisin setting the third fastest time, Faria seventh and Sagrera 11th – the top eleven split by only 0.653s.
Qualifying also set the grid for race two with the second fastest times being used. Once again the laps were super close with Voisin qualifying second, Faria ninth and Sagrera 11th - this time only 0.527ssplitting the top 11.
The opening race of the weekend was dramatic, to say the least, from the moment the lights went out with the front row starters of Joel Granfors and Matthew Rees colliding after just a few corners. Voisin and Faria were able to make their way through the melee brilliantly to launch themselves up into the lead and second respectively. From there Voisin began to pull a gap and didn’t look back to take his first single seater victory and claiming a Carlin 1-2 with Faria right there with him.
Voisin said after the race, “’I’m pretty speechless right now. I got a decent start, but the other two in front – Rees managed to get just alongside Granfors - but then they collided at McLeans and I managed to slip through without any problems.
"From then on it was just managing the tyres and managing that gap. I’m over the moon.”
Faria added, "In the qualifying we had a bit of traffic and we started seventh. But on the first lap I managed to overtake two just before the first corner, and I was behind Browning. I just didn’t understand what happened there – it was just spinning at the front.
"I was really surprised Browning tried to go to the inside and I tried to go to the outside. I took the right path and managed to be second. Callum we know is quite a good driver on the used tyres and he had quite good pace so to the end I was just focusing on the championship and trying to save tyres for the other races.”
However, it was opposite fortunes for Sagrera who was a lap one retiree. The Spanish driver was forced into a situation to avoid a slowing car ahead which sent him careering into another one. Although he made it back to the pit lane, he’d suffered suspension damage as a result and was sadly unable to capitalise on his strong qualifying position.
Race two on Sunday morning was another lap one incident filled race; this time it was Voisin who lost out as he went for the race lead. Trying to claim the position from Max Esterson, the Carlin driver was wheel to wheel but ran wide and dropped back to sixth as a result. Voisin set his sights on regaining the positions but suffered another small moment as he battled, which dropped him to seventh where he would finish the race.
Faria meanwhile sat fifth after the opening lap and Sagrera nicely up to ninth. It was a relatively less dramatic race for the pair of them which saw Faria eventually took the chequered flag in fifth and Sagrera tenth.
The afternoon race saw the full reverse race grid take place in which points are also allocated for the number of positions gained on track. Voisin fully took this to heart and battled his way through from 19thon the grid to finish in seventh – taking a huge haul of points in doing so.
Meanwhile for his Carlin teammates the drama unfolded relativelyearly on. Sagrera found himself in a three-car sandwich which saw him takefront wing damage. He was able to bring his car back to the pit lane where theCarlin mechanics made a front wing change and sent him back out; he wouldeventually finish 19. Faria also took front wing damage on theopening lap and came into the pit lane for a change; the Brazilian racer wasable to take some consolation in setting the fastest lap of the race despitefinishing down the order in
The fourth round of the championship will get underway June23-26 at Snetterton.
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