British racer Alice Powell wrote her name in the history books this weekend as she clinched her first GP3 Series Drivers’ Championship point in the season finale at Monza.
It was the 19-year-old’s first time at the Autodromo Nationale Monza and she made her debut in style, becoming the first female driver to score a point in the Series to make history at the iconic Italian track.
Speaking afterwards she said: “To get my first point in GP3 is brilliant and I am so chuffed.
“Status Grand Prix has done a great job and helped me so much this year, so to finish the weekend with a top eight finish is fantastic.”
Team Manager Simon Cayzer added: “It’s fantastic that Alice finishes the season with a point score. She has always shown great speed during the season, but getting on the points table had been our target for some races now.
“To be the first female driver to achieve this in the GP3 Series is a great achievement and it’s testament to all the hard work Alice puts in both on and off the track.
“Alice was consistently one the fastest drivers in sector two at Monza throughout the whole weekend. Now we look forward to 2013 with the new era GP3 car and sincerely hope that Alice can be with us again next year.”
The weekend kicked off with free practice on Friday where Alice learnt the track and worked with her Status Grand Prix team to set-up the car and get to grips with the hard tyre option. She ended the day in a comfortable 12th position on the time sheets.
On Saturday morning Alice used only one set of new tyres in qualifying to save a set for the races ahead. The Status GP car had good pace around the track, but Alice was unable to utilise tow from a car in front and was only able to set a time of 1:45.303 seconds to sit in P22 at the end of the session. She was, however, later promoted to P21 for the start of race one following a penalty issued to Kevin Ceccon.
Saturday afternoon saw a decent start to race one with Alice gaining a couple of places before turn one to move up a further position later in the lap when eventual 2012 Championship winner Mitch Evans went off at turn seven. Avoiding further race incidents, she reached P12 at the chequered flag.
After a poor start to race two on Sunday morning, Alice crossed the finish line in a well deserved P10, to later be promoted to an 8th place finish and claim her first GP3 Drivers’ Championship point.
Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
Image credit: Daniel at LAT Photographic
