Daniel Ticktum secured his fourth victory of the 2018 FIA European Formula 3 Championship season in tremendous fashion as he overcame the battling Sacha Fenestraz to win the opening race of the weekend at Silverstone on Saturday morning.
The Motopark driver had started third on the grid but a great move by Ticktum around the outside of Luffield enabled him to move ahead of Guan Yu Zhou on the opening lap and put the pressure onto polesitter Fenestraz, with the gap never really exceeding a second.
It was robust defensive driving from Fenestraz from there on but there was no denying Ticktum, who got ahead of the Carlin driver into Stowe on lap fifteen, and once ahead there was no stopping the Red Bull Junior, who swept to victory by 1.458 seconds. The result also promoted the British racer to the top of the championship standings.
Zhou was on course for an easy podium, but the Prema Theodore Racing driver was forced to pit with a puncture, joining team-mate Mick Schumacher in retirement, who was running fourth earlier in the race when he too slowed with a left-rear puncture. After his Prema team suffered punctures in the previous round at Spa-Francorchamps as well, it has to be a worry to what is causing the issues.
It was also a frustrating race for another of the Prema drivers, Ralf Aron, who was outside the points when he spun into the gravel trap at the end of the Hangar Straight with what looked like another issue with tyres, with the spin forcing him out of the race. His issue forced the hands of the officials who put a full course yellow onto the circuit.
The problems for Zhou and Schumacher had promoted Jonathan Aberdein up to third for Motopark, with the South African seemingly able to keep Enaam Ahmed of Hitech Bullfrog GP at arm’s length, and it was the British racer who found himself under pressure from Jüri Vips, who made a great start and ran some strong early laps to climb from tenth.
However, the restart following the full course yellow saw Aberdein lose out to both Ahmed and Vips, with the South African ultimately taking fifth at the chequered flag, with Ahmed taking his first podium finish since his victory at the Hungaroring back in June.
Marcus Armstrong fell down to ninth on the opening lap but soon found his way back passed Alex Palou for eighth, although a mistake at the end of lap six, when he ran wide at Club, almost let the Spaniard back into the game. He profited from the misfortune of his team-mates to take sixth ahead of Palou, while Robert Shwartzman took eighth for Prema ahead of Jehan Daruvala and Fabio Scherer.
The third Briton on the grid, Ben Hingeley, finishing just outside the points in eleventh for Hitech Bullfrog GP, and was involved a good battle with Motopark’s Marino Sato throughout, although it was not enough to claim a sixth top-ten result of 2018.
Silverstone Race 1 Result
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