Despite a win for Daniel McKenzie in race two of the final Cooper Tyres British F3 Championships, it was celebrations in the Carlin garage as James Calado held of Oliver Webb to take the runner-up spot in the championship behind fellow Carlin racer Jean-Eric Vergne.
Before the days first race in the series, it was announced that the top two drivers in the championship will be awarded with a test in a Formula Renault 3.5 car giving both Webb and Calado extra incentive to push hard for the second spot.
With the top seven cars reversed on the grid in race two, it was advantage Calado as he was one place ahead of rival Webb, knowing he needed just to finish ahead of him to claim the second place in the championship with one race remaining.
Race two winner Daniel McKenzie
McKenzie made a good start and lead the field through the first lap, whilst behind there was a lot of shuffling of places as new champion Vergne moved up to fourth place from eighth on the grid in the first few corners. Front row starter William Buller ran wide at Druids dropping him way down the order and Adriano Buzaid had claimed two place to move up to third after lap one. Calado was sitting pretty in fifth with Webb two places behind in seventh split by Rupert Svendsen-Cook.
Despite some close battles throughout the 16 lap sprint race, the positions at the front were to remain unchanged as McKenzie took a comfortable win over second placed Carlos Huertas to give him his second victory of the year. The remaining podium was taken by Buzaid, who by the end had to hold off a strong challenge from Vergne who himself was closely followed by Calado who took fifth position after holding off Svendsen-Cook during the middle section of the race but Svendsen-Cook dropped away towards the end and finished in sixth. Webb's challenge for the runner-up spot came to an end as he couldn't improve on his seventh place. Daisuke Nakajima, son of ex-formula one racer Satoro, took eighth place whilst behind Felipe Nasr, who set the fastest lap, held off a challenging Alex Brundle, son of Martin, to round out the top ten.
Meanwhile, in the National Class, Menasheh Idafar took his second win of the weekend to extend his lead over James Cole for the title. All he needs to do now to seal the National Class championship is to finish the final race of the season.
Menasheh Idafar: inching towards National Class title
