Saturday, May 26 2018

Carlin's Nicolai Kjaergaard claimed his second victory of the year with a commanding performance in the opening race of the weekend at Snetterton this afternoon (Saturday).

The Dane made a great start and kept Linus Lundqvist at around a second behind him throughout, with a slight mistake by Lundqvist late on promoting Kush Maini to second, with Lundqvist taking third. The result means Kjaergaard and Lundqvist are tied at the top of the championship standings, with Kjaergaard the new championship leader by virtue of more second place finishes. 

Jordan Cane was fourth for Douglas Motorsport, fending off a race long challenge from an impressive Harry Webb, making his series debut on his home circuit for Chris Dittmann Racing. Tristan Charpentier was sixth for Fortec, holding off Carlin's Billy Monger, with Tom Gamble, Sun Yue Yang and Krishnaraaj Mahadik completing the top-10.

Kjaergaard powered away from pole position, leading to Riches from Lundqvist and Maini, while fourth-placed starter Sasakorn Chaimongkol was slow away and plummeted down the order to 14th. Kjaergaard led by just over a second at the end of lap one, a margin he was to hold throughout the early stages, with the front two evenly matched, as demonstrated by the pair setting lap times within 0.003s of each other on lap three.

The Dane extended the lead marginally to 1.2 seconds on lap four, but by lap eight, Lundqvist had begun to eat into the lead slightly, with the gap just below a second before Lundqvist made a small mistake at Hamilton on the penultimate lap, handing second place to Maini, and in doing so, forfeiting the championship lead. 

Maini's second place, was his fourth podium of the year and elevated him to third in the championship standings, while Lundqvist was disappointed on the podium afterwards, but also conscious that his fourth consecutive podium result is still good for the championship. 

Douglas Motorsport's Cane in fourth gained two places on his starting position, but was challenged throughout by Chris Ditttmann Racing's Webb, who despite a lack of testing showed he has good inherent pace, and finished 0.347s behind his fellow Brit on his F3 debut. 

Fortec's Tristan Charpentier in sixth was 0.7s ahead of Carlin's Monger, who was close by throughout and ultimately finished 0.7s behind the Frenchman, and 0.391s ahead of Charpentier's team mate, Tom Gamble.

Sun Yue Yang gained three places on his starting position to finish ninth, and almost five seconds clear of Mahadik, who was just half a second clear of the recovering Chaimongkol. The Thai driver showed his pace by picking off a number of competitors as he recovered from his slow start.

Manuel Maldonado, who finished last after a late off, will start race two tomorrow morning from pole position, while Lundqvist claimed fastest lap, potentially giving him pole for race three should no one better his time in the second contest. 

BRDC British F3 Championship, Snetterton race one result:

1. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, 10 laps
2. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +4.684s
3. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, +5.854s
4. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +10.233s
5. Harry Webb, Chris Dittmann Racing, +10.580s
6. Tristan Charpentier, Fortec Motorsports, +14.252s
7. Billy Monger, Carlin, +14.994s
8. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +15.385s
9. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +17.670s
10. Krishnaraaj Mahadik, Double R Racing, +22.512s
11. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +23.043s
12. Jusuf Owega, Hillspeed, +23.741s
13. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +25.421s
14. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +29.894s
15. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +31.678s
16. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +34.678s
17. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +59.601s