After a contact with the GP3 Dallara Renault at Jerez de la Frontera, in which he surprised the people from Status GP and from Addax Team with his fast adaptation to the car, he will return to Formula 3 Italia for another test.

The Spanish-Argentinean driver, this time, will be at Vallelunga with the Piercarlo Ghinzani’s team, a former Formula 1 driver. “I’m looking forward to sit in the car, after one month far from a singleseater. It will be my third day in a Formula 3 car, after the tests that I made with Prema at Mugello and at Vallelunga, so I’ve more experience, something that will allow me to work in the right direction. One of the goals for this test is to understand the relationship that I’ll have with the team”, said Facu Regalia, who added: “After the good tests with Prema, some of the best teams of Formula 3 Italia are interested in me, and I want to be between the fastest again and keep evolving as a driver”.

In the last few weeks Facu Regalia, who has been away from the circuits, have been working hard “at Argentina so I can get the necessary support that may permit me to keep competing at the highest level in 2011”, concluded the Spanish-Argentinean driver.

Alexandre Imperatori made up 14 places in the final race.

Swiss racing driver Alexandre Imperatori produced a star performance in the Macau Grand Prix at the weekend, fighting his way from the back of the grid to finish 12th overall and the best placed of the Japanese F3 drivers in the category’s unofficial ‘World Cup’ event.

The prestigious race, previously won by motorsport luminaries such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, attracts the best Formula 3 drivers from the main series across the globe, with a 30-strong grid including drivers from the British, Japanese and Euro Series championships competing this year.

After a difficult season, Imperatori and his Toda Racing with KCMG team were delighted to show strong pace right from first practice on Thursday morning, with Alex placing ninth in first qualifying. The second session, postponed from Friday until Saturday morning, was dogged by red and yellow flags as well as traffic, leaving Imperatori down in 19th for the afternoon’s qualification race as he failed to get a clear lap.

In the race though, the 23-year-old immediately began to make ground, making up two places by the first corner and then consistently climbing the field with impressive overtaking moves every lap around the challenging 6.1km street circuit.

Unfortunately, having made it past Antonio Felix Da Costa for what would have resulted in ninth place with two laps remaining, a rear brake failure caused by a hydraulic leak forced Imperatori to retire.

That left him well down in 26th for the main event on Sunday and Imperatori was immediately in trouble when a chaotic start saw him brake to avoid an accident ahead and promptly get hit from behind by another driver and suffer damage to his car’s rear diffuser, wing and wishbone.

Nevertheless, he was able to continue and, after two early Safety Car periods, he immediately began his surge through the field, making up 14 places during the remaining nine-lap sprint to the flag to finish a fine 12th overall and the best-placed of all the Japanese F3 Championship contenders.

Alexandre Imperatori: “It’s actually a really good result and a very positive way to end the season. The brake issue in the qualifying race was a real shame as we could have finished ninth which would have set us up nicely for the main event. We then suffered the damage at the start on Sunday, but despite that we still made a lot of overtaking moves and set the seventh best lap time.

“It was very important for both me and the team to finish the season on a strong note and we’re delighted to have ended the weekend as the best representative of the Japanese F3 Championship.

“The performance has opened up a lot of opportunities for 2011 and, although I don’t have anything finalised yet, I’m very keen to stay here in Japan and graduate to Formula Nippon.”

Valtteri Bottas finished third in Macau's prestigious F3 Grand Prix.

The Asian year-ending trip of Prema Powerteam to Macau ended with an highly-rewarding third place finish today on the Guia circuit. The team’s three drivers managed to score top-10 spots in Qualifying 2, before Valtteri Bottas, Roberto Merhi and Daniel Juncadella handed to the Italian squad led by Team Principal Angelo Rosin some more good reasons to celebrate.

In a great proof of strength and expertise, Bottas clocked the second fastest lap in qualifying, despite making slight contact with the wall and being forced to the pits for repairs. In the only clean lap he had available, the Finnish racer clocked the 2nd fastest lap of the day and grabbed a spot on the front row for race day. Merhi ended up in 6th, while Daniel Juncadella, on his debut at the World’s toughest venue, scored 8th place.

On the Qualifying Race, Bottas scored 4th place, as he slightly missed some speed compared to the Signature Racing drivers that dominated the top-3. Mehri drove an aggressive race before hitting the barriers and finishing in 22nd, while Juncadella stayed into the top-10 until checkered.

Roberto Merhi charged from 22nd to 8th.

At the end of the Grand Prix race, Bottas cruised to a third place finish. Merhi completed a sensational comeback from 22nd to 8th, while Juncadella had to retire following to a first place crash.

Angelo Rosin – Team Principal
“We’re leaving Macau with our heads held high, with the great third-place trophy taken by Bottas and aware of having fought for the top spots all the time. We went on top in practice, and we took a front row spot with him. Mehri had the chance to be part of the game, but paid the price of a late Qualifying Race mistake. It’s been a pity for Juncadella. His weekend’s results didn’t do justice to him, because despite being at his Macau debut, he performed great and kept constantly among the leading pack.”

Here’s the entry list:

• Edoardo Mortara (Signature)
• Yuji Kunimoto (TOM’s)
• Jean-Eric Vergne (Carlin)
• James Calado (Carlin)
• Oliver Webb (Fortec Motorsport)
• Luis Felipe Nasr (Räikkönen Robertson Racing)
• William Buller (Fortec Motorsport)
• Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin)
• Roberto Merhi (Prema Powerteam)
• Alexander Sims (Räikkönen Robertson Racing)
• Laurens Vanthoor (Signature)
• Marco Wittman (Signature)
• Antonio Felix da Costa (Carlin)
• Daniel Juncadella (Prema Powerteam)
• Rafael Suzuki (TOM’s)
• Yuhi Sekiguchi (Three Bond Racing)
• Alexandre Imperatori (Toda Racing)
• Hideki Yamauchi (Hanashima Racing)
• Daniel Abt (Signature)
• Felix Rosenqvist (Performance Racing)
• Brendon Hartley (Hitech Racing)
• Carlos Munoz (Hitech Racing)
• Renger van der Zande (Motopark Academy)
• Kimiya Sato (Motopark Academy)
• Aaron Filguera (Motopark Academy)
• Rio Haryanto (Räikkönen Robertson Racing)
• Lucas Foresti (Fortec Motorsport)
• Michael Ho (Räikkönen Robertson Racing)
• Adderly Fong (Sino Vision Racing)

Nakajima received a drive-through penalty for the incident that never happened and his race for points was ruined. His team, Räikönnen Robertson Racing, questioned the penalty and Jay Bridger’s team Litespeed also confirmed that Nakajima was ahead of Bridger during the so called incident.

But the damage was already done. The race director had checked with the flag marshalls three times before deciding on the drive through penalty and there are no CCTV to look at.

There’s nothing to do about it…

Valtteri Bottas is only in his third season in cars but has already managed to win no less than 23 races in his 53 race starts. Last year he won both the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and the Northen European Cup.

Full race results of the Masters of Formula 3.

Team principal Nino Judge:
“I can confirm that we will be filing our application to the FIA today for entry to the 2010 F1 championship. This is an extremely exciting time in the history of F1 with the changes in technical and financial requirements. We have lodged our deposit with Cosworth and are extremely serious and excited about this venture. We wish all teams the very best whilst the decision process is taking place and look forward to the potential of being on the grid in 2010 and beyond.”

Source:
Litespeed lodges F1 entry ahead of deadline

Carlo comments on the move in his press release:

“I look forward to contribute to the success of this new team and working with Volkswagen. I had a fantastic season in Japan in 2008 and last autumn I had several offers from teams in Formula Nippon and the Japanese GT championship. Then Japanese motor racing was hit hard by the financial crisis, however, so I very much welcomed the offer from Kolles & Heinz Union and Volkswagen. As a driver, to be asked to help achieve the ambitions of a works supported team is very rewarding and of course it represents a great challenge.”

If the new F3 team can bring Carlo a competitive car he will be up there fighting for his third Formula 3 championship title.

Motopark Academy will also field a second car for a so-far unannounced driver.

He joins the championship as a Red Bull Junior and is the third Red Bull driver in the series after Robert Wickens and Mikhail Aleshin were confirmed earlier.

“Having already driven a Formula One car, I am desperate to have this experience again in my career. Through this chance in F2 and my relationship with Red Bull, I hope this dream can be realised in the future.”