KEY POINTS:
A tight third place finish to back up his runaway win the previous day has lifted Brendon Hartley to third overall after the weekend's British Formula 3 races in Bucharest.
The overnight Round 20 on the Romanian street circuit has set the scene for a dramatic finale to the 22-race International series at Donington in three weeks.
At the sharp end of a tough season, the final outcome has become an 'in-house' Carlin Team competition, being decided by mere fractions of a second between three team mates that are now F3 title rivals. Hartley lost out by just over one second in yesterday's racing; after earlier in the day being robbed of pole position by just 0.003 second.
Hartley and two of his Carlin Motorsport team mates were covered by just 1.1second as they finished 1-2-3 across the line after a frantic 20 laps. The three F3 rookie drivers now hold the top three places going into the last two rounds; Hartley 30pts off the lead with 42pts still up for grabs.
Fellow Red Bull Junior Driver Jaime Alguersuari scored his third victory of the season in Sunday's Bucharest race. The Spaniard held off Englishman Oliver Turvey by 0.6sec with Hartley only 0.5sec further back in third place.
Turvey forced Hartley wide - and almost into the wall at the first corner - allowing Alguersuari through. An annoyed Hartley dropped to fifth place but within a lap was shadowing Alguersuari and Turvey. In spite of setting a new F3 lap record along the way, a frustrated Hartley stayed third.
After 20 races Turvey leads on 222pts, Alguersuari has 210pts and Hartley has improved to 192pts. In spite of setting the weekend's fastest overall lap time with a blistering pole position for the Saturday race which he then won comfortably and setting fastest lap for the Sunday race; Hartley gained just 3pts on Turvey in Romania.
The only solace for Hartley, who has won and led more racing laps than any other driver; is that it is not yet over. Bucharest provided the all-conquering Carlin Motorsport team with their 150th victory following a qualifying session that saw Carlin cars locking out the front row for the eighth time in 2008.
Qualifying for Round 20 was yet again a disjointed 30 minute affair, split up by crashes and red flags. Hartley looked secure on pole until a final dash following a delay in the pits. Hartley delivered a last lap of 1m 12.039 lap but seconds later Turvey put together a 1m 12.036 pole position by a fraction.
Algueusuari was nearly half a second slower and shared the second row with John Martin. Mexican Sergio Perez was in trouble in 10th place on the grid. His third place overall in the Championship was already under threat from Hartley.
Alguersuari took the lead on the first lap when Turvey ran wide at the first corner defending from Hartley and delayed them both. Turvey later conceded he was unable to slow down and blamed being on the slippery side of the track. "It wasn't intentional," said Turvey. "There was no need to push me wide I'm quite annoyed," responded Hartley
Turvey maintained second but Hartley dropped to fifth and had to fight his way back past John Martin and Max Chilton. He passed both in one move at the last corner.
All three were side by side down the straight, with Hartley on the inside and Chilton on the outside both sweeping past Martin. Chilton tried to chop into the corner but Hartley was already there so he aborted and cut the roundabout.
Chilton rejoined ahead of Martin but lifted on the main straight to give the place back. The loss of momentum also allowed Esteban Guerrieri to come through and Sergio Perez was all over the back of Chilton.
Perez harassed Chilton for a few more laps until he got a good run down the main straight and moved ahead around the outside. Chilton tapped the back of Perez as the Mexican braked in front of hima nd his nose kept pushing the back of Perez's Honda-powered car until it spun.
Perez was then collected by the unsighted Ricardo Teixeira, which brought out the safety car, and Chilton had to pit for a new nose. The safety car closed things up at the front and after the restart, Hartley set about finding a way round Turvey. He looked to be quicker but he couldn't get close enough to make a serious move.
Turvey was also able to keep his pace up enough that Alguersuari couldn't get away, so 1.1 seconds covered all three as they crossed the line at the end. Martin lost fourth place when he spun and crashed at the right-hand kink and that promoted the Mygales of Esteban Guerrieri and Michael Devaney to fourth and fifth.
