Karjalainen takes a hat trick - May 13 07

Henri Karjalainen made it a clean sweep in the Sentul Asian F3 Pacific event. Moreno Soeprapto was second and Dillon Battistini third. Guest driver, John O'Hara put the cat amongst the pigeons by briefly taking the lead when Karjalainen ran wide in the final turn on lap four. Paul Ip again won the Promotions Class.

Karjalainen made a reasonable start and led at the start whilst Battistini had his hands full of O'Hara and a slow starting Soeprapto. O'Hara forced his way Battistini and closed in on Karjalainen who ran wide on the exit of the final turn.

This allowed O'Hara into the lead although the Finn re-took the lead at the following corner. He quickly opened up a gap and Battistini was soon in second place when O'Hara pitted with electrical gremlins. The team were able to repair the car and he re-joined but was later excluded for entering the pit garage during the race.

"The race was lost so we decided to work on the car to ensure we had solved the problem for the next event" said O'Hara.

Soeprapto fought his way past Battistini in a brave move up the inside into turn one on lap four, the Indonesian almost on the grass in the braking area. Once by that's how the top three finished with Robin Tato again fourth and Paul Ip winning the Promotions after another entertaining race with Don Tacos.

Karjalainen has reduced Battistini's series lead to a mere three points with Soeprapto third in the points a further 32 points behind the second placed driver.