Formula 3 young guns surprise F1, IndyCar stars in Granja Viana 500

The race winners

SÃƒO PAULO – Sudam F3 reigning champion Yann Cunha, his series rival Lu Boesel and kart regular Luiz Cordeiro Filho surprised the hot favorites to win the 14th edition of the Granja Viana 500 Mile, held on Saturday at Kartodromo Internacional Granja Viana in SÃ£o Paulo. The trio started only from 27th slot in the grid, courtesy of a contact during the Top Qualifying sprint race, but moved up in the field right after the beginning of the 644-lap endurance challenge. They covered the full distance with an advantage of one lap to the second placed duo Nelson Angelo Piquet-Christian Fittipaldi.

The finish

The traditional karting event was promoted for the last time in Cotia, a small town located 25 km off SÃ£o Paulo. On Friday, during a press conference, Felipe Giaffone – track owner and Barrichello’s team mate in the all time most successful squad of Granja Viana with eight victories — announced that from 2011 on the race will move to Beto Carrero World, a thematic park in the southern Estate of Santa Catarina, 700 km off SÃ£o Paulo.

Barrichello and his long-term pal Tony Kanaan, teaming up with Giaffone and Antonio Pizzonia, failed to add another P1 to his records due to a long list of problems during the entire race and finished in 5th position. The same happened to polesitter Alexandre Ruiz, prevented from achieving nothing better than a 20th position with 12 laps down. In the other hand, Christian Fittipaldi two-kart team shone and for some time seamed to be close to a victory with Victor Meira, until the IndyCar ace retired with a technical failure with a bit more than one hour to the checkered flag. With the other machine, Fittipaldi and Piquet Jr. drove a superb race to land a well-deserved second place.

Wet from sweat and champagne after stepping down the podium, Lu Boesel was the joy in overalls. "It was a tough competition, but thanks God we were able to keep the pace all the time and not wasting time on traffic. The whole team did a superb job, especially during the pits stops. It is a wonderful achievement in this moment of my career, as I’m aiming to look for an IndyCar seat next season. Beyond that, it is a huge pleasure to beat these great drivers and mainly in a race that closes a page of this event history", celebrated the nephew of Raul Boesel.

Results:

1) C&L MOTORSPORT – Lu Boesel, Yann Cunha and Luiz Cordeiro Filho, 644 laps in 10h54min15s556
2) FITTIPALDI PITSTOP – Christian Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet, 1 lap
3) HEAD & SHOULDERS/CARAS – Rafael Suzuki, Felipe Fraga, Eduardo Banzoli and Carlos Barrichello, – lap
4) HANIER ESPECIALIDADE QUÃ�M – Beto Cavaleiro, Eduardo Leite and Lucas Finger, 3 laps
5) BARRICHELLO/HEAD&SHOULDERS – Rubens Barrichello, Tony Kanaan, Felipe Giaffone and Antonio Pizzonia, 4 laps
6) RACING TEAM SWEDEN – Frans Bergman, Diogo Broka, Thiago Parazinho and Davide ForÃ¨, 5 laps
7) TECHSPEED/REDSTAR RACING – Eduardo Ventre, André Nicastro, Francesco Ventre and Pedro Gomes, 6 laps
8) BEE RACING/BKO/MEGA – Nelsinho Stanisci , Bruno Balarin, SebÃ¡ Malucelli and Aloizio Coelho, 6 laps
9) CRG BRASIL 2 – Davide ForÃ¨, Arnaud Kozlinski , Michele Gatting, André Pedralli, Johnatan Louis and Thiago Santos, 7 laps
10) CKS/WILD KART/BCO JBS – Yuri Alves, Fernando Carvalho, FÃ¡bio FogaÃ§a e Thiago Massa, 7 laps