MAY 16, 2002

Rising stars gather at Pau

THIS weekend will see the first international Formula 3 race of the year on the streets of Pau, in the south-west France and the cream of the current Formula 3 runners will be present, racing one another on Michelin tires, which will hopefully mean that no-one gains an unfair advantage. The British Carlin Motorsport won the race last year thanks to the efforts of Anthony Davidson and will be back this year to defend the title, running four cars for James Courtney, Alan Van der Merwe, Michael Keohane and Shinya Hosokawa. Among the other 20 runners will be all the major racers from France plus Opel Team BSR from Germany and Prema Powerteam and Team Ghinzani from Italy.

Pau has traditionally been a circuit which sorts the men from the boys with the past winners of the race, which dates back to 1930 and has been run for F1, F2 and F3000 cars over the years, including Tazio Nuvolari, Jean-Pierre Wimille, Juan-Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Jean Behra, Jack Brabham, Jim Clark (four times), Jochen Rindt, Jackie Stewart, Jean Alesi, Gil de Ferran and Juan Pablo Montoya (twice).