Motul Team West-Tec made a good start to the EuroFormula Open and Spanish F3 Championships at Jerez last weekend, leaving the famous Spanish circuit as joint leaders of the Championship.
Yarin Stern and Tanart Sathienthirakul both ran at the very front and both took competitive podiums, although both can legitimately claim to have deserved still more.
Yarin struck hard to take a solid pole position in first qualifying, with Tanart not far behind in fifth in what was a typically uber-competitive Formula 3 session to set the grid for race one.
With rain on the grid causing havoc, Yarin made a poor getaway by his standards and dropped down the initial order, although Tanart by contrast moved up to take the lead in the early laps with some seriously good driving in challenging conditions.
But with those conditions ever changing, Yarin was setting a cracking pace as he sliced through the midfield. Just as he got to a position where, now with hindsight, he would have been back in the top three he was involved in a three car collision approaching the hairpin and, sadly, his car was damaged and he was forced to retire.
Tanart was continuing to lead the way though but a drying track meant those with settings more suited to those conditions eventually caught up and started to pressurise him. Despite some worthy defending he was unable to resist but still finished third to take his maiden podium in Formula 3.
For Sunday's race two, qualifying was again very tight and Yarin this time gridded third, with Tanart also in the top ten. The race was much less eventful this time, as the top three cars circulated on the same pace but Yarin was never quite able to find a way by and settled for a conservative third place finish following his race one disappointment.
Tanart was also faster than the cars directly in front of him and was able to pass a couple before becoming stuck and running out of laps to improve on eighth.
The EuroFormula Open now moves to Paul Ricard in France, for the next rounds in two week's time.
John Miller, Motul Team West-Tec: Two podiums were good but it could have been more! Yarin could easily have taken two wins with a bit more luck, although I was delighted to see Tanart leading the way and on the podium as a result of a lot of hard work from him over the winter.
Despite not getting the rub of the green we leave Spain at the head of the Teams points so I know we are going to be looking for more silverware at Paul Ricard.
One of the most successful teams in the history of the EuroFormula / European Formula 3 Open, Team West-Tec enjoys team support from Motul, Nielsen Chemicals, B-G Racing, Eibach, MIS Locktons, Mechanix and Freem GB.
