Chinese driver Sun Yue Yang took his first BRDC British F3 Championship win. A dramatic reverse grid race at Donington Park benefited the Renault Development Driver who had started on pole, surviving two restarts.
With the grid jumbled up, it was a chaotic opening lap, as Tom Gamble initially took the lead from sixth.
This would not last long though, as further back, a safety car was called for Manuel Maldonado, who was caught up in a crash at Coppice. The Fortec Motorsports driver was beached on the inside of the corner and a medical car was soon called. A red flag was flown as the Venezuelan was recovered.
Marshals took the opportunity to inspect the kerbs as the sun came out, starting to dry the track.
After a 10 minute delay, the grid was reformed in the same order as they’d started, with the exception of Jamie Caroline and Jamie Chadwick who had pitted after the first lap drama.
It wouldn’t get much better though, as five cars were involved in a first lap collision.
Into the first corner Arvin Esmaeili was spun, cutting the corner and collecting Linus Lundqvist, with Kush Maini, Josuf Owega and Billy Monger caught up in the resulting carnage. Monger would be the only driver to recover, limping back to the pits with a broken front wing.
An extended safety car period left the cars with 6 laps of racing as Sun Yue Yang led the field away. Gamble was on the move though, finding his way past Pavan Ravishankar and chasing down the Chinese driver.
It would not be enough though as Yang hung on for his maiden single-seater win with Gamble and Ravishankar rounding out the podium. Fourth would go the way of rookie Hampus Ericsson, who remained out of trouble to complete a good result for the Fortec team.
Max Defourney would finish fifth ahead of Sasakorn Chaimongkol, picking up a strong result despite his grid penalty. Top eight was completed by Krishnaraaj Mahadik and Ayrton Simmons.
Monger though would pick up the fastest lap in clear air at the back, putting him on pole for race three.
