10 May 2002

FIA International Formula 3000 Championship

First qualifying this weekend saw Giorgio record the seventh quickest time with Brask Management colleague Alex Müller 17th. In the second session Giorgio nearly took pole but was just beaten to it by the more experienced Tomas Enge. Giorgio lines up for Saturday afternoon's race from the outside of the front row with Coloni team mate Enrico Toccacelo in third.

Leading positions from qualifying: 1st Enge, 2nd Giorgio Pantano, 3rd Toccacelo, 4th Haberfeld, 5th Pizzonia, 6th Wirdheim, 7th Saelens, 8th Friesacher, 9th Bourdais, 10th Ric. Sperafico. Alex Müller 17th.

Giorgio took fourth place today and now leads the championship but there was more to the day than meets the eye. Giorgio's electronic box packed up on the way from the Formula 3000 paddock to pitlane. This had to be changed and then unfortunately the wiring went up in smoke. The resulting work meant that his racing seat and other items had to be taken out to fix the problems. Giorgio made it to the grid with only 20 seconds to spare and only then could the team get everything back in order. He started on stone cold tyres as he didn't do the installation laps when he was in the pits with technical problems. During the race Giorgio again demonstrated a mature driving style trying to pressure Mario Haberfeld into a mistake but the Brazilian held on to take third.

Alex made a very good start and got into eighth place on the first lap. His fortunes then took a turn for the worse as bad oversteer set in. After the race his engineers found the cause. Gearbox oil had been leaking onto the back tyres.

Race result: 1st Enge, 2nd Wirdheim, 3rd Haberfeld, 4th Giorgio Pantano, 5th Friesacher, 6th Toccacelo. Alex Müller 13th.