Championship leader Ricky Collard extended his points advantage in the overall standings, as the Carlin man led away from pole position and controlled a safety car restart to take victory in the opening race of the BRDC British Formula 3 weekend at Snetterton. Collard’s title rivals Matheus Leist and Toby Sowery completed the podium in second and third respectively, as further down the field Enaam Ahmed walked away from an opening lap shunt which saw his car roll at Brundle.
Glorious Norfolk sunshine welcomed the BRDC British F3 field for the 20-minute qualifying session, as the real action got underway following two days of testing on the Snetterton 300 circuit. At the midway point of the session, Australian Thomas Randle led the way but the drama soon began to build. A lap time of 1m43.777s from Ben Hingeley put him on provisional pole but Lanan Racing’s Sowery soon responded. He lowered the benchmark to a 1m43.542s and led the way with five minutes remaining, as Harrison Scott slotted into second ahead of Nikita Mazepin, who is making his BRDC British F3 debut at Snetterton, and Ricky Collard.
Brazilian Matheus Leist, who had languished in the lower reaches of the field up until the end of the session, soon found the speed he had displayed during Friday practice and he moved into third for Double R Racing. Shortly after, Ricky Collard laid down the gauntlet to Leist as he took provisional pole before improving his time again on the next circuit, a lap time of 1m43.156s a major challenge to his rivals.
Leist continued to better his time and he claimed a front-row spot alongside Collard, closing to within 0.298s of the Hampshire-based racer. He was not done there though and as the chequered flag was unfurled, Leist set the fastest first and second sectors of any driver during the session, as he pushed to the limit in an attempt to take pole position away from Collard. As he headed up the start/finish straight, the chequered flag was waved but Leist fell an agonising 0.059s shy of Collard’s time, leaving the championship leader at the head of the field.
That set up race one perfectly, with the top-two drivers in the overall standings lining up alongside each other on the front-row of the grid. As the lights went out, Collard made a strong start and was able to hold on to the lead through Riches and Wilson. Toby Sowery maintained his grid position in third as further back Thomas Randle was dragged into a battle with his Douglas Motorsport team-mate Enaam Ahmed.
After swapping positions down the Bentley Straight, Australian Randle held the inside line into the left-hander at Brundle as Ahmed attempted to go around the outside. Contact was made between the pair, sending Ahmed spinning through the grass before his car dug in and rolled. Marshals and medical staff were quickly on the scene and the 16-year-old was extricated from his Tatuus-Cosworth and able to walk away from the accident unaided.
That clash brought out the safety car and after a number of laps running under neutralised conditions, it peeled into the pit lane and racing resumed. Collard made a blinding restart and opened up an advantage of over 0.8s as the field crossed the line to go green once more. After that first circuit following the restart, Collard had a sizeable gap of 1.482s over Leist, with Sowery holding third ahead of the HHC Motorsport duo of Ben Hingeley and Harrison Scott, with Thomas Randle sixth.
Collard continued to extend his lead and opened the advantage up to 3.627s before Matheus Leist began to reel him in with a succession of fastest laps. Hampshire-based Collard was able to respond however and he pegged the gap at just over three seconds as the race headed into its closing stages. Ben Hingeley meanwhile was enjoying his most impressive performance of the year in BRDC British F3 as he held off the challenge from his team-mate Harrison Scott and Thomas Randle.
The order remained the same as the field came on to its 15th and final lap, with Collard eventually taking the chequered flag 3.179s clear of Leist to record his fourth victory of the year, and first since Oulton Park. Toby Sowery completed the podium in third ahead of Hingeley, Scott and Randle. Fortec Motorsports’ Tarun Reddy was able to pass BRDC British F3 debutant Nikita Mazepin on the final lap to secure seventh, with the top-10 being rounded out by Aleksanteri Huovinen and Eugene Denyssen.
Collard said: “It’s fantastic! We haven’t had a win since Oulton Park and to come back and get pole position and the win is great. It is maybe turning out to be one of those weekends. As long as we can crack on in race two, get our head down and make up some positions we should be in a good position for race three and just follow the procedure as the team say. Hopefully I can take some inspiration from my Dad (BTCC racer Rob Collard) who was passing left, right and centre here last weekend."
Owing to his victory, Collard has now extended his advantage in the championship standings to 10 points over Matheus Leist, with Thomas Randle now 37 points behind Collard in third, with Sowery a further seven points adrift in fourth.
Race two of the weekend at Snetterton takes place tomorrow (Sunday) at 10:20 with Carlin’s Nikita Mazepin starting from pole position.
BRDC British Formula 3 - Snetterton - Qualifying Top-10
1. Ricky Collard, Carlin, 1m43.156s2. Matheus Leist, Double R Racing, +0.059s3. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, +0.386s4. Ben Hingeley, HHC Motorsport, +0.405s5. Harrison Scott, HHC Motorsport, +0.435s6. Thomas Randle, Douglas Motorsport, +0.446s7. Nikita Mazepin, Carlin, +0.479s8. Quinlan Lall, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.486s9. Enaam Ahmed, Douglas Motorsport, +0.612s10. Tarun Reddy, Fortec Motorsports, +0.894s
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BRDC British Formula 3 - Snetterton - Race One Top-10
1. Ricky Collard, Carlin, 15 Laps2. Matheus Leist, Double R Racing, +3.179s3. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, +7.469s4. Ben Hingeley, HHC Motorsport, +12.708s5. Harrison Scott, HHC Motorsport, +13.025s6. Thomas Randle, Douglas Motorsport, +13.566s7. Tarun Reddy, Fortec Motorsports, +22.456s8. Nikita Mazepin, Carlin, +23.047s9. Aleksanteri Huovinen, Double R Racing, +23.432s10. Eugene Denyssen, Sean Walkinshaw Racing, +25.807s
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2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Standings after race 19 of 24
1. Ricky Collard, Carlin, 389 points2. Matheus Leist, Double R Racing, 379 points3. Thomas Randle, Douglas Motorsport, 352 points4. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, 345 points5. Enaam Ahmed, Douglas Motorsport, 263 points6. Lando Norris, Carlin, 247 points7. Tarun Reddy, Fortec Motorsports, 212 points8. Enzo Bortoleto, Double R Racing, 200 points=. Aleksanteri Huovinen, Double R Racing, 200 points10. Thomas Maxwell, Sean Walkinshaw Racing, 198 points
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