Debutant Cane victorious as Ahmed takes a sixth win at Snetterton
Jordan Cane take victory in just his second British F3 race as championship leader enaam Ahmed extends his advantage with a sixth win from nine races
BRDC British Formula 3 rookie Jordan Cane won his second race in the championship at Snetterton today (Sunday 28 May), whilst title leader Enaam Ahmed further extended his lead with his second victory of the weekend.
Cane, who turned 16 just five days ago, drove a mature race to win ahead of Carlin's Cameron Das and Douglas Motorsport team-mate Callan O'Keeffe. In the final race of the weekend, Ahmed resisted an early attack from Toby Sowery, whilst Saturday pole-sitter James Pull completed the podium.
Race One
At the start of Sunday morning's race, Cane, who finished in eighth place on his British F3 debut yesterday, made the most of his partial reverse-grid pole position to lead into Riches. Meanwhile fellow front-row-starter Jamie Chadwick made a slow getaway, losing several places, and Das shot through from third place to challenge for the lead. Cane and Das ran side-by-side through Riches, but it was the pole-sitter who led onto the Bentley Straight. As the field completed the opening lap, Cane headed Das, O'Keeffe, Ben Hingeley and Sowery. Chadwick's start lost her five places, and she lost another to Ahmed, who used the opening part of the race to post the fastest lap of the weekend so far, taking pole position for race three.
Further back, seventh-place starter and race one pole-sitter James Pull dropped back through the field, certain that he had picked up some debris on his way to the grid. He pitted on lap three with a shredded rear tyre, so his Carlin mechanics bolted on a new one, and he set a lap good enough to start race three on the front row alongside team-mate Ahmed.
Back at the front of the action, Cane was controlling the gap to Das, even pulling away a little from his rival. Cane's mission was helped in part by Douglas team-mate O'Keeffe, who was keeping the Carlin driver honest, and ready to pounce should an opportunity present itself. Eventually the top three drivers cleared the rest of the field, leaving fourth place to be disputed by Hingeley and Sowery.
In sixth place, Ahmed ran a relatively lonely race as Chadwick defended seventh from Nicolai Kjaergaard. The top ten was completed by Chase Owen and Guilherme Samia.
Taking the chequered flag over a second clear of Das, Cane was a jubilant winner, whilst O'Keeffe completed the podium, where trophies were handed out by Le Mans and GT racing BRDC member Martin Short.
Cane said: "It’s amazing. We didn’t have a great day yesterday, because we knew our pace was quick in the dry, so we struggled in the wet in qualifying.
"The first five laps Cameron was really putting pressure on me, but we just managed to keep it there and I started to pull a bit of a gap. I was hoping these two [Das and O’Keeffe] would fight a bit more, but I managed to get there in the end."
Race Three
Having set the fastest lap of the weekend so far to take pole position for the final race of the weekend, Ahmed got away well to lead as the lights went out, but behind, Sowery got off to a flyer, and challenged Pull into Riches, successfully taking the place in a repeat of his race one performance. This time, however, he stayed ahead of the Carlin car and chased after Ahmed, making good progress in the early laps.
Once his tyres to come up to temperature, Ahmed maintained a safe gap to Sowery and with Pull keeping the Lanan driver in check, the top three began to pull away from the rest of the field. Behind, the Douglas cars of race two winner Cane and O'Keeffe raced in tandem and chased by Das, whom O'Keeffe had demoted in the early laps.
Das was unable to get on terms with the Douglas pair, but ran ahead of Fortec's Hingeley. Behind, Kjaergaard lost ground defending from an intense midfield pack that included Ismail, Di Comberti, Maldonado, Chadwick and Owen. Samaia had headed this group, but retired from the race on lap six.
Ahmed managed to stretch his lead over Sowery to just over two seconds at the chequered flag, winning his sixth race of the season and establishing a commanding 44-point lead over team-mate Das. Pull finished a second behind Sowery, completing the podium.
Celebrating on the podium, Ahmed said: "It has been a really good weekend; I knew it was one of my strongest tracks, because the guys call me a Snetterton specialist. Toby was genuinely quick at the very beginning, it took me a while to get my left side new tyres in, but once I did I was able to eke out the gap.
"This is a strong track of mine, and I know others are better at other tracks, so we going to have to keep working. Toby’s really good around Silverstone and Spa, he was much quicker than us in testing, so he’ll give a good race there."
BRDC British F3 Championship race two result
1. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, 10 Laps
2. Cameron Das, Carlin, +1.489s
3. Callan O'Keeffe, Douglas, +2.295s
4. Ben Hingeley, Fortec, +5.587s
5. Toby Sowery, Lanan, +6.625s
6. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, +7.819s
7. Jamie Chadwick, Double R, +13.587s
8. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Fortec, +13.992s
9. Chase Owen, Hillspeed, +20.184s
10. Guilherme Samia, Double R, +20.524s
BRDC British F3 Championship race three result
1. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, 10 Laps
2. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, +2.103s
3. James Pull, Carlin, +3.092s
4. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +6.374s
5. Callan O'Keeffe, Douglas Motorsport, +6.999s
6. Cameron Das, Carlin, +8.224s
7. Ben Hingeley, Fortec Motorsports, +12.003s
8. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Fortec Motorsports, +20.333s
9. Omar Ismail, Chris Dittmann Racing, +21.027s
10. Aaron Di Comberti, Lanan Racing, +21.447s
BRDC British F3 Championship standings after nine of 24 rounds
1. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, 241pts
2. Cameron Das, Carlin, 197pts
3. Ben Hingeley, Fortec Motorsports, 186pts
4. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, 179pts
5. Callan O'Keeffe, Douglas Motorsport, 175pts
6. James Pull, Carlin, 155pts
7. Omar Ismail, Chris Dittmann Racing, 99pts
8. Chase Owen, Hillspeed, 95pts
