The third and final British F3 race at Brands Hatch went the way of Jazeman Jaafar who claimed a second win of his return weekend, while Jordan King grabbed the championship lead following an incident that removed Will Buller.
Race one winner Jaafar was peerless from pole position after keeping his place away from the line, where he fended off late pressure from Carlin team-mate King to eventually claim a comfortable second win and third podum visit of the weekend.
The 2012 runner-up pulled out a safe lead of over three seconds in the early laps of the race, but King soon upped his pace and trimmed the gap to virtually nothing as the final half of the 30-minute encounter dawned.
With the tight Brands Hatch circuit proving difficult to overtake around, King had to settle for second having grabbed the bonus point for fasest lap, but he almost had one golden opportunity to overtake his team-mate through lapped traffic, King making slight contact with the back of Jaafar’s Dallara-Volkswagen as he tried a bold move round the outside at Paddock Hill Bend.
Jaafar hung on an pulled out a lead of over five seconds, leading a Carlin sweep of the podium with Nicholas Latifi in a distant third.
Fourth went to race two victor Felipe Guimaraes, but the Fortec Motorsport driver was also part of battle that proved costly for his team-mate Buller in the championship fight.
Fighting with Antonio Giovinazzi for fourth on lap two, Buller joined in and made it three-abreast around Druids, the inevitable collision happening at Graham Hill Bend where Giovinazzi pranged into the side of Buller’s Dallara and spun him around, the Italian also retiring in the spot with broken suspension on his Double R car.
Buller finished 12th and out of the points, meaning that King overturns his fellow Brit in the title chase, lying just three points clear with three more races to go at the Nurburgring on September 21-22.
That cushion would have been larger, had it not been for the 30-second time penlties handed to Buller and Latifi in race two (for disrespecting track limits) being rescinded later in the afternoon, meaning Buller was promoted ahead of King in the race two order to fourth to limit the damage only very slightly.
Fifth went to Jann Mardenborough ahead of Sean Gelael and Tatiana Calderon‘s Double R machines, eighth again going to National class winner Ed Jones in front of Cameron Twynham and Carlin rookie Peter Zhi Cong Li.
The National win for Jones also saw him trim the points lead of Sun Zheng to 40 points to keep his hopes alive, helped by a dramatic collision between the pair when Zheng rode over the back of his rival during their battle at Druids.