Egor Orudzhev made the most of his wet weather racing skills to take a dominant victory for Carlin in the first Cooper Tires British Formula 3 Championship race of the weekend at Silverstone.
The Russian prevailed over the rest of the 7-car field, after a 3-lap safety car stint started the race in adverse conditions. With the safety car pulling into the pits at the end of lap 3, the field embarked on an 8-lap dash to the flag.
Pole man Martin Cao made a strong start to the race, before a mistake at Becketts left the Chinese driver exposed just a few corners later, with Orudzhev sweeping past the Fortec Motorsport driver into Vale.
From there it was quite literally plain sailing for the Russian teenager out front, with Cao left to fend off the efforts of teammate and sometime-GP3 star, Marvin Kirchhofer.
Andy Chang, Matt Rao, and Camren Kaminsky rounded out the top six around a drenched Silverstone circuit, but could do nothing about a charging Orudzhev out in front.
“I tried to keep the car on track, but struggled,” said Orudzhev. “The standing water meant that I had to be careful, but on the first lap I took a risk when I braked later and took Cao’s position, and then I made a getaway.
“From then on I had a clear track with a good view – I just had one small mistake and went off, but it was OK.”
Rao will start the second race of the weekend this afternoon from pole position following the reverse grid order, with Chang joining him on the front row ahead of Kirchhofer, Cao, Orudzhev, Kaminsky, and Li Zhi Cong.
