PETALING JAYA: It will take a herculean effort from Jazeman Jaafar (pic) to win the British Formula 3 International Series title despite claiming his first ever podium at Donington Park yesterday.

Jazeman’s second place finish in the first of the three finals of the series and his 14th this year ensures he remains the championship leader although his six-point lead is down to just one.

It will not be easy staying on top if Carlin teammate Jack Harvey continues with his solid form.

Harvey closed the gap in the standings with a dominant win to jump to second behind his Malaysian rival.

Harvey made the perfect getaway from pole position and was followed over the line by Jazeman. Fortec’s Alex Lynn placed third while Puerto Rican rookie Felix Serralles was fourth.

Harvey received a boost for his title aspirations earlier in the week as a judicial review of his Silverstone second-race time penalty found in his favor, restoring him to a finishing position of second in that race.

With that decision came the return of 14 championship points. Jazeman is not surprised that the championship fight will be down to the last corner of the last lap of the third and final race.

The 19-year-old Jazeman has been in superb form this season and is delighted he was never out of the top three in each racing weekend as he kept alive his dream to make Malaysian motorsports history.

“I guess you could say that the pressure is on now but it’s no different for me this weekend than any other as I always go out to win and be as quick as I can, so I’ll take it as it comes,” said Jazeman from Donington.

Jackie Stewart, Nelson Piquet, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello are all former winners of the series before they became Formula 1 legends.

Results

Race 1 (21 laps): 1. Jack Harvey (Gbr) Carlin 29:07.724, 2. Jazeman Jaafar (Mas) Carlin 29:11.635, 3. Alex Lynn (Gbr) Fortec 29:12.768, 4. Felix Serralles (Pur) Fortec 29:15.570.

Standings: 1. Jazeman Jaafar (Mas) 294 points, 2. Jack Harvey (Gbr) 293, 3. Felix Serralles (Pur) 286. 4 Alex Lynn (Gbr) 237, 5 Carlos Sainz Jr (Spa) 224.

- The Star