Taking full advantage of a the reverse grid start after a underwhelming qualifying Lucas Foresti eased to his second British Formula Three International Series win of the year, leading home a 1-2-3 finish for Fortec Motorsport.
The Brazilian started from pole, and after a getaway good enough to lead into the first corner found it relatively simple to extend his lead for the win.
“I think I just did a good start and did good laps, laps, laps, laps and I got good points,” Foresti told www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk. “The team is quick we got a 1-2-3 and Mercedes did a good job for the team to get everything together for the day. I qualified badly, with some mistakes and damaged the car a little bit, so I couldn't got a bit quicker in qualifying. But now I have shown the car is quick. We are going in the right direction, we just need to keep going”
Behind Foresti, and unable encroach upon an advantage that ended the race at 5.4 seconds, was Harry Tincknell. Starting from the rear of the Fortec threesome Tincknell climbed to second at the expense of Will Buller on the journey towards Riches on the first lap.
“After the first lap it's so hard to overtake in Formula Three and Snetterton's no different,” analysed Tincknell, who claimed his best F3 finish and second podium in only his seventh race. “I had a really good launch and managed to get past Will off the line and from three just had to keep my cool and bring it home to the finish. I was on older tyres compared to Lucas, so I knew I wasn't going to catch him and I just had to maintain my tyres as best I could.”
The one blot on Tincknell's otherwise perfectly controlled race was a single markedly slow lap caused by running wide of Williams that allowed Buller alongside on the Bentley (nee Revett) Straight, before Tincknell saw off the challenge at the Esses.
Forth behind the Fortec fleet was Pietro Fantin. The Hitech Racing driver was within a second of Buller for almost the entire race, but ended the 20 minute, 11 lap race frustrated.
Hywel Lloyd finished fifth – equalling his best ever F3 finish – having repelled mid race pressure from championship leader Felipe Nasr. Nasr was the only member of yesterday's Carlin 1-2-3-4 to make significant progress from his starting slot, climbing to sixth on the opening lap.
Behind Riki Christodoulou Kevin Magnussen – winner yesterday – could only finish ninth, one place behind Carlos Huertas, despite setting the fastest lap of the race. The missing Carlin man Rupert Svendsen–Cook had his race ended without completing a lap, a recurrence of a misfire from qualifying and practice rearing its head again. Yann Cunha took the top ten place he vacated, claiming the single point for tenth.
Kotaru Sakurai scored his first Rookie Class win of the year, rival Bart Hylkema taken out on lap one
In the Rookie Class there was first win for Kotaro Sakurai after Bart Hylkema was one of several drivers involved in a crash at the Montreal hairpin on the first lap. The Dutchman reported being hit from behind and being “launched” over a few other cars.
Jack Harvey, another taken out in the pile up was able to shed slightly more light on the incident.
“I had a pretty good start and managed to get around the first turn without any problems. I was right behind the guys infront and managed to get on the inside [for the Montreal hairpin]. It's always a bit of a gaggle when you're in that middle pack but I managed to get the apex still with no problems, but then I saw Idafar start to spin. It was quite unusual because usually crashes move to the outside, but because he was on the outside his rear was spinning towards the inside of the corner. I was fully committed to the exit and as I was moving out of the corner he was moving into it with his rear. There was nothing either of us could have done.”
Hylkema and Harvey retired on the spot, their cars returning to the paddock with suspension damage. Idafar and Jazeman Jaafar were also involved, but only lost a lap in pitting for a new front wing.
