An outstanding final BRDC British F3 race saw Colton Herta recover after his weekend of misery around Brands Hatch. Starting on pole, the American held on the lead throughout a red flag interrupted event.
The grid, as usual, was sorted from the fastest laps in race two. This meant that Herta, who’d raced a few laps down in race two, was given pole as he wasn’t held up by the field. As the lights went out he lead from pole, with Enaam Ahmed slotting into second.
The best start, however was seen by Ricky Collard who rocketed into fourth from seventh. He soon made his way into third as Raoul Hyman was quickly disposed of, putting him into a podium position.
Another driver who found himself quickly up the order was Thomas Randle. The Australian started fourteenth, but an excellent drive through the pack saw him settle into sixth after the field settled into order. One driver who was had a tough time was championship leader Toby Sowery. After starting from the pit lane, the Lanan Racing driver spent much of the race working his way up from the back.
Like Herta, Hyman was hoping for a strong final race after struggling to make much progress on Saturday. His great start to the race saw him slot into fifth place, challenging Collard in the opening stages. This soon became fourth after Matheus Leist found himself pushed onto the grass, tumbling down the order as a result. Hyman would run into trouble himself soon though as he misjudged a move at Westfields, putting a wheel on the grass, losing control and smashing into the barrier.
The incident saw the safety car deployed before a red flag was implemented to also clear Tarun Reddy who’d gone off at the corner in a separate incident. Ahmed was forced to pit in order to fix the damage to his car leaving Collard in second as the race was restarted.
Herta initially broke away slightly, but a series of fastest laps from Collard saw the American pushed in the closing stages, crossing the line only 0.573 seconds ahead, with Randle rounding out the podium.
With a number of front runners falling back down the grid or retiring, Sisa Ngebulana took the opportunity to claim fourth, beating Aleksanteri Huovinen. Rounding out the top six was Krishnaraaj Mahadik, the Indian, who’d made a strong restart proved his skill by holding off a train of cars in his first British F3 weekend.