02.08.08 TURVEY VOWS TO COME BACK STRONGER FROM SPA Saturday, 02 August 2008: Oliver Turvey vowed to come back stronger than ever after being sidelined by mechanical problems at the start of round 16 of the British F3 International Championship at Spa today. The RSF driver – who had shown ability and ambition in equal measure on Thursday and Friday to charge to two pole positions, a race win and second in the championship – displayed defiant determination in the wake of the hugely disappointing DNF. "It's a massive disappointment but the battle for the championship is far from over yet," he said. "We'll come out fighting even stronger for the next rounds at Silverstone and if we can win those, it will go a long way to making up for today." After capturing his second win of the season in Friday's round 15 at the Belgian circuit, the F3 rookie was brimful of confidence as he took to the circuit for the second race of the double header. Then the gremlins struck. On the green flag lap he felt something break and lost power. In the vain hope of a last minute miracle, he carried on, taking up his place on the grid. But when the lights went out the Dallara's engine followed suit. "As I approached the last corner on the green flag lap I heard something break, or felt something break," he said. "There was a strange sound from the engine and then it just lost power. So I radioed the team to tell them there was a problem and they said to start as normal. "But at the start there was just no power and it wouldn't pull off the line so I got pushed into the pitlane and it was a case of race over. The team are trying to find out the cause of the problem. "Clearly we're all pretty downbeat because I honestly believe we could have won that race a lot easier than yesterday's. We were quickest in practice, got pole for both races and the win yesterday which showed we had the pace. But that's racing and there's no point in dwelling on it. We've just got to move on. "The championship is still do-able but it's frustrating because instead of having to play catch up we should be leading the championship." << back to news