Paffett ended his 2001 year with a Formula 3000 test with Coloni. He impressed the team at the test at the Magione circuit in Italy and team boss Paolo Coloni seemed very willing to sign him in the coming years.
Paffett resumed his German F3 career in 2002 with the first round like last year being held at Hockenheim. For the very first race of the season he qualified in second position for Team Rosberg. Paffett started well, overtaking Charles Zwolsman on the run to turn one. Paffett pulled out a big gap before rainfall slashed down the gap. He had a four second lead over Frank Diefenbacher until backmarkers held him up and diminished his lead. The two battled it out until the end and Paffett held on to the lead with Zwolsman coming home in third. “It was an amazing start,” said Paffett. “It must have looked like I jumped it, I was so far ahead by the first corner, but I didn’t. When the rain fell it was amazing difficult to find where the grip was, and then the backmarkers weren’t co-operating at all, not that there was many blue flags.” Race two at Hockenheim but Paffett spun on lap two on a damp track after heavy understeer effectively ending his chance for a points finish. He crossed the line in 16th. Diefenbacher won the race followed by Jeffrey van Hooydonk and Bernhard Auinger.
Sachsenring hosted the third round of the German F3 series. Paffett took a lights to flag victory from pole position looking assured throughout the race. A first corner pile up put Paffett’s closest rival Diefenbacher out of the race as De Oliveira came second in the race with Matsuura third. Paffett was excluded from race 4 for a fuel infringement. Timo Glock won the race followed by De Oliveira.
He fought back from this exclusion with a double victory at Norisring. Race One was a close affair, Paffett charged into the lead at turn one but fell to third by the time lap one was complete with Auinger and Diefenbacher making their way past. He then lost out to Sven Heidfeld at the notorious first corner hairpin and fell down to fourth. On lap 3 Paffett took Heidfeld at the same corner as Diefenbacher damaged his car after hitting Auinger. This led Diefenbacher to struggle with handling and on lap seven Paffett overtook him at turn one. Auinger had built up a big lead but Paffett produced several quality laps and this led Auinger to struggle where he had previously been effortless. Auinger produced some fantastic defensive maneuvers as he valiantly attempted to defend his position from Paffett. But it was all in vain as Paffett overtook on lap 13 and never looked back. Auinger and Diefenbacher followed in second and third. Race two was far easier for Paffett. He started in second and overtook Matsuura midway through lap one. Matsuura was then overtaken by Diefenbacher as the final order was Paffett, Diefenbacher then Matsuura.
Paffett continued his form with a win at the Eurospeedway Lausitz. His race one victory was flawless bar a shaky start. Doornbos and Glock followed him across the finishing line. Race two’s points were completely nullified due to an incident involving Paffett. Autosport quotes: “Paffett was given a stop/go penalty in that race for overtaking two rivals under the safety car, which was being used from the start due to heavy rain, after he stalled briefly on the dummy grid. He had regained his position in time for the start proper, but the race director wrongly judged this illegal, which Paffett claimed lost him the chance of at least a podium finish. Paffett finished the race in 11th.”
Paffett then suffered a bit of a dry run. Race 1 at the prestigious German GP supporting Hockenheim race distributed him a second place behind Matsuura and at race 2 he came sixth yet still extended his championship lead after Diefenbacher retired. He placed behind winner van Hooydonk. Paffett led the championship by 32 points. He came seventh at Nurburgring race 1 as Glock won and once again came seventh in race 2 as Winkelhock won.
He recovered at the A1 Ring as he was victorious after qualifying on pole position. Siedler overtook him after a great start from third place but Paffett got a better run out of turn one and overtook at the heavy-breaking turn two. Siedler finished in second with Liimatainen third. In Race 2 Paffett had a bad time with handling problems and finished tenth which rendered his pole position redundant. After a poor start Paffett discovered he had issues with his steering and fell down to sixth. When Paffett was in fourth Ryan Briscoe brought out a safety car after he overturned his car. Paffett managed to haul himself into fifth before a reckless lunge plunged him down the order and out of the points. Timo Glock drove a fantastic race and won from seventh on the grid.
Paffett had a torrid time at Zandvoort as he threw away the chance to wrap up the championship. In race one while in third he was taken out of the race by Timo Glock after a moment of misjudgment by the German and Liimatainen went on to win. Matsuura won race two keeping the title alive with a 18 point gap between the two with 22 points on offer. Paffett found himself in the gravel trap for the second race in a row but this time it was at his own accord.
But finally Paffett got his glory at race one at Hockenheim. Paffett eased to victory after overtaking Liuzzi midway through the race and his title rival Matsuura was eliminated from the race after a controversial clash with Paffett’s teammate Liimatainen. “This title means everything to me,” said Paffett. “This was an excellent way to win it. Especially at an iconic track such as Hockenheim. I have been winning championships all my life, but this is the most important. Everyone watches Formula 3 and knows how hard it is to win a championship.” Paffett struggled in the wet of race two finishing just outside of the points as Siedler won. But this didn’t effect Paffett and big things awaited in 2003.
FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. Paffett
2. Matsuura
3. Glock
4. Diefenbacher
5. van Hooydonk
6. Siedler
For more in depth statistics on this season of German F3 I recommend going to: https://www.driverdb.com/championships/standings/formula-3-germany/2002/
Tune in for Part 3 next time on DTM Driver History
