In an almost carbon copy of race one, it was Ricky Collard who took the honours in the third and final BRDC British F3 race of the weekend at Oulton Park. He was joined on the podium by his compatriots from his victory on Saturday.
Collard becomes the first three time winner this season, coming away from Oulton with one of the best weekends of his career. The BMW backed young driver, now leads the championship by 37 points over second place Thomas Randle.
A rocket start from Randle saw the Australian immediately jump Colton Herta and quickly moved to the outside of Collard into the first turn. Unfortunately for him, memories of race one came flooding back as Collard once again edged him behind with the same top three eventually emerging.
A poor start from Jan Jonck saw him drop to eighth on the opening lap, an unfortunate end to the weekend for the Dane who’d been in contention for a podium. As the field spread out Collard lead from Randle and Herta as Enaam Ahmed fell back having kept fourth off the line.
It soon became clear that Ahmed was off the pace as he held up Matheus Leist, who would have been happy to have not spent another race stuck behind Enzo Bortoleto who sat sixth. Leist remains in contention for the championship, but will want to get back to the front after a weekend of staring at rear wings.
With half the race remaining, Leist got impatient, though it proved to little avail as Ahmed’s defense remained strong. Behind them, Toby Sowery and eighth place Jonck caught up, only to add to the pressure, though the positions remained rigid.
Come the end of the race, Collard claimed victory by almost two seconds as he further extended his gap to second place Randle. A third will be a strong confidence boost for Herta who travels to France this weekend to compete in the next round of Euroformula Open. The race also marked an end to Thomas Maxwell‘s incredible run of points, finishing outside the top ten for the first time since the first race of the year, he finished twelfth.
