Yu Kanamaru finally took his maiden EuroFormula Open victory as he took advantage of a mistake by Vitor Baptista on lap eight to win race one at Silverstone.
Although the Japanese driver, driving for Emilio de Villota Motorsport, was unable to shake off the attention of the Brazilian driver, he did not put a foot wrong, and was able to take the chequered flag for his first victory.
Baptista’s runners-up spot means the RP Motorsport driver now leads the championship, as pre-race leader Konstantin Tereschenko could only finish down in seventh position.
Alessio Rovera took his fourth podium finish of the season in third, but had a lonely race in his BVM Racing machine, while Yarin Stern finished fourth for Team West-Tec F3, similarly ending the race more than ten seconds behind Rovera but more than thirteen seconds clear of fifth placed Diego Mencheca.
Mencheca was able to get ahead of Damiano Fioravanti of RP Motorsport in the final laps, with the two drivers ending the race just 0.532s apart, with both drivers able to get ahead of Tereschenko on the final lap.
Behind Tereschenko in seventh was Team West-Tec F3’s Tanart Sathienthirakul, who finished just 0.421s ahead of BVM Racing’s William Barbosa, while RP Motorsport’s Antoni Ptak took the final point, just ahead of Corbetta Competizioni’s Alexey Chuklin.
Ptak had been on course for eighth but for a last lap lunge from Henrique Baptista at Club corner that saw the Campos Racing driver hit the kerbing and get launched into the side of the RP Motorsport driver, with the floor of Baptista’s car getting dangerously close to the helmet of the Polish driver.
Front-row starter Leonardo Pulcini of DAV Racing was eliminated in a first lap clash with RP Motorsport’s Igor Walilko.
Silverstone Race 1 Result
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