Saturday, November 07 2020

Carlin's Kaylen Frederick claimed his eighth BRDC British F3 victory of the year in race one at Silverstone, extending his championship lead over Kush Maini who finished third. Maini was passed at turn one by Ayrton Simmons, with the British driver taking JHR's first British F3 podium with second place. 

Roberto Faria secured his best BRDC British F3 result so far with fourth place for Fortec, ahead of Double R's Louis Foster, with Oliver Clarke completing the top-six for Hillspeed after an around the outside move on Hitech GP's Reece Ushijima, who settled for seventh on the road but was disqualified post race for causing a collision. 

Josh Skelton therefore claimed seventh for Chris Dittmann Racing ahead of Lanan Racing's Bart Horsten, while Hillspeed's Sasakorn Chaimongkol was ninth for Hillspeed with Piers Prior completing the top-10. 

There was drama right from the start, as Frederick converted pole into the lead on the run to Copse, with the championship leader moving across the track to stop Maini's advance from the front row, and allowing Simmons to blast around the outside of the Indian driver at the opening turn to snatch second place.

Further back, Douglas Motorsport's Ulysse De Pauw and Faria went wheel to wheel through Chapel, with the Brazilian driver bouncing across the kerbs and dropping to sixth behind Ushijima. 

Frederick built a lead of seven tenths of a second over Simmons at the end of lap one, a margin he had extended to six seconds at the end of lap six. That lead was wiped out though when De Pauw and Ushijima came together at The Loop on the same lap, dropping Ushijima down to sixth but wiping De Pauw out of the race and also championship contention, with the Belgian's car stranded just off the racing line with a buckled rear suspension. The move was investigated post-race, with Ushijima disqualified from the results after the Clerk of the Course found him guilty of causing the collision. 

The safety car was deployed with De Pauw's car requiring a lift away from the scene, but quick work from the marshals allowed the contest to resume at the end of lap eight, with Frederick immediately pulling away to establish a gap of over 1.5 seconds at the end of lap nine, and taking the flag by 2.6 seconds as he extended his championship lead to 24 points with two races remaining. 

Simmons held second place throughout the race, and wasn't able to do anything about Frederick in front, but maintained a comfortable gap to Maini behind, despite this being one of the easier tracks to overtake on throughout the season.

Maini now faces an uphill battle tomorrow to steal the championship from Frederick. The Indian driver can score a maximum of 70 points across tomorrow's two races, while Frederick can earn a total of 72, as he starts two places further back on the race two reverse grid. Frederick needs to simply outscore Maini by 11 points in race two tomorrow morning to claim the championship title one race early. 

BRDC British F3 Championship, Silverstone GP race one provisional result:

1. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, 10 laps
2. Ayrton Simmons, JHR Developments, +2.608s
3. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +3.834s
4. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +4.857s
5. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +6.127s
6. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +6.260s
7. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +8.176s
8. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +9.664s
9. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +10.023s
10. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +10.713s
11. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +12.258s
12. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +13.883s
13. Jonny Wilkinson, Fortec Motorsports, +15.095s
14. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +18.174s
15. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +18.466s
16. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +24.881s
17. Max Marzorati, Chris Dittmann Racing, +24.963s
DNF. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, 5 laps completed
DQ. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP