>> Podiums prove elusive for Bridgman
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Monza | 10 July 2005
An eventful and expensive weekend for Tim Bridgman at Monza has seen three potential podium finishes slip away from the Hitech Racing driver in rounds 13, 14 and three of the British F3 International Series.
Starting from P6, P7 and P4, the 20-year-old from Essex gained places to sit in the top three in each race before a puncture, a disqualification for chicane cutting and missed penalty flags saw prospective podium places disappear.
In the first race of the weekend, Bridgman was comfortably running in third before a puncture at the second Lesmo curve forced him to exit the race at the Tribune chicane on lap six.
Round 14 had Bridgman moving from P7 to P3 on the first lap ahead of Danilo Dirani (P1 Motorsport). A tight tussle between the drivers saw Dirani overtaking Bridgman in the closing laps of the race. Bridgman regained the place but braked too late into the Ascari corner and cut across the chicane. At the drivers' briefing the Italian stewards had emphatically warned any such short cuts would not be viewed lightly and Bridgman was consequently excluded from the results.
In a climatic end to the weekend, Bridgman received a black flag after not heeding a drive-through penalty incurred due to an incident at the second chicane. Bridgman said unfortunately he had no radio contact with the team and did not see the black flag he was given as it was displayed at the start gantry, not the finish gantry where it would be expected. Bridgman, who led for the most part of the race before being overtaken by Carlin Motorsport's Alvaro Parente on lap nine, lost his second place and was fined €2,500. He apologised to the Italian Motorsport Federation, the CSAI, saying, "I am sorry for what took place, it was a genuine error that I certainly won't let happen again," when acknowledging his mistake to the stewards.
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