Denyssen and Maxwell race to top ten finishes for SWR

Eugene Denyssen was rewarded for a series of battling performances during the penultimate BRDC British F3 Championship event of the season.
Thomas Maxwell in action for SWR at the weekendThomas Maxwell in action for SWR at the weekend
Thomas Maxwell in action for SWR at the weekend

His reward came for SWR at the Snetterton 300 Circuit where Denyssen received the Sunoco Driver of the Weekend accolade.

Racing to a pair of top ten finishes for the Chipping Norton team in rounds 19 and 20, Denyssen went on to finish 16th in the final contest.

He had been shuffled back to the tail of the field on the opening lap and forced to mount a recovery on a track where overtaking is near impossible in F3 cars.

Team-mate Thomas Maxwell encountered the misfortune of a ‘track limits’ time penalty in the second of the weekend’s contests, limiting him to 14th place, after finishing 13th in race one and then an improved 12th in the third outing.

SWR team owner Sean Walkinshaw said: “It’s a shame qualifying wasn’t a bit better as Tom and Eugene both showed good race pace, especially in the last race.

“Both guys were competitive. Tom ran top six pace in the third one, so we know the possibility was there to achieve more if we’d started higher up the order as overtaking is so difficult in F3 at Snetterton.

“Eugene worked hard to recover in the last one, he raced well and made up a couple of places with some good driving.

“They’re both learning so much every time they go out and we’re actually feeling pretty positive for Donington in a few weeks.”

Maxwell had a time disallowed for a track limits infringement in qualifying, but still only just missed out on the top ten with the 11th fastest time of the session.

Denyssen, meanwhile, lined-up 15th on the grid for the opening race and climbed into the top 12.

The South African broke into the top ten as a result of a spin for Quinlan Lall, which he held on to.

Despite being bundled back to 15th, Maxwell passed Akhil Rabindra after the re-start on lap five and then moved into 13th place on the sixth tour and remained there to the chequered flag.

In Sunday morning’s race, Maxwell moved up two places before he was edged back to 12th on lap four and shuffled back another place on lap nine.

The Australian was handed a time penalty for a ‘track limits’ indiscretion and ended the race in 14th position.

Denyssen pressurised Bortoleto early on but eventually finished tenth, keeping Ameya Vaidyanathan at bay.

For race three, Maxwell gained places on each of the first two laps to climb into the top 12 and during the closing stages he turned up the heat on Aleksanteri Huovinen ahead, finishing the race a mere 0.6 seconds adrift.

Although elbowed down to 18th place on the opening tour, Denyssen fought back well and gained 16th during the latter part of the contest.