Germany: Michael Devaney Racing rounds 5, 6 notes

Podium for Devaney @ Sachsenring

The German F3 Cup moved on to the fast and flowing track of Sachsenring at the weekend for rounds 5 + 6 and it proved to be another missed opportunity for Irishman Michael Devaney despite his 2nd place finish in round 5 on Saturday. The 20 year old qualified 3rd in both qualifying sessions and in Round 5 on Saturday he shot off the line to take 2nd place into the first corner and pressured the leader for the first few laps. When the race settled he drove the car home to take another podium finish and collected 8 points towards his Championship Campaign.

Sunday proved to be more difficult due to no fault of his own. After making a clean start to maintain his 3rd position into the first corner he kept the pressure on second placed man Peter Elkman and leader Pascal Kochem until suddenly on lap 5 his pace suddenly dropped by over two seconds per lap. For the remainder of the race he tried to defend his position from the train of cars that developed in his rear view mirrors but with his laptimes so slow he dropped back to sixth by mid race where he stayed for the remainder of the race despite huge pressure still coming from behind. After the race the reason was clear for his sudden drop in pace. His right rear tyre's surface was destroyed, it resembled the surface of the moon with crater like marks around the whole Hankook tyre.

"Our 2nd place on Saturday was fantastic, we really needed the points after missing the first two round's of the Championship. I got a good start and overtook Pascal Kochem into the first corner and it was pretty straightforward run to the flag after that. We really needed another high points score on Sunday and it looked that way until around lap five while in third position the car developed severe oversteer and it was a challenge to keep the car on the track. The right rear tyre turned out to be the problem, I've seen this same problem on other cars in testing where one of the rear tyre's becomes destroyed. Hankook are blaming the car set-up and we are blaming Hankook but a solution must be found before the next race." Commented Michael

The Dubliner now lies 6th in the points table despite missing the first two rounds of the championship. He knows his race on Sunday was another missed opportunity, "In Hockenhiem we had a win and a non finish caused by an engine failure and now at Sachsenring I have a second place finish and a tyre related sixth place finish, Its clear we have the speed but the luck has not been with us and it makes things much more difficult when your playing catch up in the points table."

Round 7+8 will take place @ Lausitzring on the 3rd of July.

Race 1
1st Peter Elkman(D) Dallara-Opel Spiess
2nd Michael Devaney(IRL) Dallara-Opel Spiess
3rd Pascal Kochem (D) Dallara-Mercedes

Race 2
1st Peter Elkman
2nd Pascal Kochem
3rd Frank Kechele (D) Dallara-Opel Spiess

6th Michael Devaney

Championship Table
1. Peter Elkman 50 points
2. Frank Kechele 31
3. Ho-pin Tung(CHN) 27

6. Michael Devaney 22

-mdr-