Melbourne racing driver Dylan Young has had another strong weekend at the Magny Cours Formula 1 Circuit in France in the Formula 3 Regional category of the Ultimate Cup Series from October 15-16.
Young’s recent podium run consisted of 11 podiums from the last 12 races and unfortunately he fell just short of continuing that streak this weekend despite a strong qualifying in 3rd place.
As the only Australian in the field, Young had a DNF retirement in Race 1 before finishing in 4th for Races 2 and 3 of the weekend across a grid of 20 drivers from the likes of France, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands.
Driving for French team Graff Racing, Dylan's talent was on display as the other drivers in the Championship had the advantage of up to 3 additional test days on the circuit compared to the Aussie. Young was left to discover the challenging 4.411km circuit across just 3 practice sessions before qualifying, with drastically less track time than his rivals.
However, Young produced a strong lap to finish 3rd in qualifying, albeit making a mistake that would have seen him challenging for a front row start.
Race 1 was held in extremely cold and foggy conditions where tyre temperatures were crucial. Young managed a strong start and held his 3rd position whilst hot on the tails of Nicolas Prost, son of four time Formula One World Champion Alain Prost. A safety car was implemented on Lap 3 and on the restart Young pushed to be able to get in the slipstream of Prost to make a move, but in doing so ran wide onto the marbles and then had an exciting fight whilst managing to keep 3rd place from behind. However, running wide and defending left Young's tyres extremely dirty and he made a slight mistake across the kerbs in the final corner, losing the rear of the car in the process and unfortunately had to retire when the car was unable to be restarted..
Race 1 is critical to setting up the remaining races start positions and Young was left visibly frustrated at the missed opportunity but was equally excited to fight through the field for the next races.
He finished in 4th place for Race 2 after an exciting first few laps attacking for 3rd place but would have to start Race 3 from 9th place as a result of not finishing in the morning race.
But this is where Young’s talent was on show as he put on a masterclass in overtaking. He cut his way through the field, overtaking five cars with some brilliantly bold moves before catching up to his team mate ahead who had the benefit of a new set of tyres compared to Young's used set of rubber.
Young was lapping as the fastest car on the track at the time, and clearly faster than the driver ahead but was struggling to find a way past in the dirty air. However, he had one more daring move in him and made an amazing Daniel Ricciardo type dive under brakes on the final lap to secure 4th place, securing the 3rd fastest lap in the process. The pace Young had showed that with the benefit of clear air and a higher starting position, he would have been battling for the lead after finally getting to grips with the circuit.
Dylan Young: "Another really fun weekend with Graff at Magny Cours! This was definitely the most fun ‘drivers’ track so far! On one hand I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t replicate the podiums from the previous rounds. But on the other hand I understand I missed the tests the other drivers had and still managed to qualify third. I just made a mistake in race 1 pushing hard which is my fault and that affected the rest of the weekend. But I had a lot of fun the next races moving my way up the field to P4 and I feel we showcased the pace we had to battle for the lead in the last race dicing through the field once I finally had more time on track compared to my rivals."
"I want to send big thank you to everyone at Graff Racing for all the support and all my partners for constantly believing in me!”
Dylan Young Racing is in partnership with:
My Muscle Chef, Dutton Group, AudioWhiz, Selby Acoustics, Bae Juice, Doer, Kanebridge News, Seek, M4 Software, Urban Maintenance Systems, Grip Auto & Insightful Intelligence
ENDS