Hillspeed racer Sasakorn Chaimongkol became the thirteenth different winner of the 2019 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship after a stunning and decisive first corner overtake on Douglas Motorsport’s Kiern Jewiss to seal race victory in the first race of the weekend at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. He finished just 0.824 s clear of Jewiss, while Fortec Motorsports’s Johnathan Hoggard claimed his tenth podium of the year to slim Clement Novalak’s points lead to just 31 ahead of races two and three tomorrow.
Chaimongkol made an excellent start from the left-hand side of the grid on the run down into Corpse corner, and despite the best efforts from Jewiss to close down the Thai driver, the Hillspeed racer held firm and made the move stick at the first time of asking. Behind the top two, a bad start from Chris Dittmann Racing’s Ayrton Simmons saw him drop down to sixth position as championship contender Johnathan Hoggard was elevated into third place for free during the first couple of hundred metres of the race.
Further down the order, Manuel Maldonado was battered and bruised while battling Josh Mason over tenth place which consigned the Venezuelan to the pit lane at the end of the opening lap.
The following lap, there was good news for championship leader Novalak as Benjamin Pedersen, who was running directly ahead of him, stopped at Stowe corner which elevated him up another place. And while the American did get going again, it was only for the remainder of the lap when he came into the pits to retire the car.
Towards the front of the order, the battle between Ulysse De Pauw and Neil Verhagen saw a change of position as the American seized the advantage. But not for long as the Double R Racing driver was awarded a 10-second stop-go penalty for a jump start which dropped him way down to tenth place after the chequered flag.
Meanwhile, the battle for the lead hotted up with Chaimongkol continuing to soak up the pressure from Jewiss, but the British driver hounded the Thai racer ever since he lost the lead at the first turn. Hoggard was not too far behind either in third place should either of them slip up in the final few laps of the race.
After Verhagen’s penalty, De Pauw dropped back from the American which allowed Simmons to close up and pass the Belgian in the closing laps which meant that Verhagen’s penalty applied, the British driver recovered from a tricky race to finish fourth.
Up front, despite all the pressure in the world, Chaimongkol held on to become the thirteenth different winner of the season with Jewiss ending up second and Hoggard rounding off a productive day in the office in third place.
While Novalak did gain two places today courtsey of Pedersen’s retirement and Verhagen’s jump-start, he had his championship lead cut by nine points which means he heads into the races tomorrow only 31 points clear of Hoggard and will need to come from behind in race three to consolidate his points lead ahead of the season finale at Donington Park in four weeks time.
The reverse-grid race begins in earnest tomorrow morning at 10.10 where Manuel Maldonado will start from pole position after his lap one incident in this afternoon’s encounter.
Full Table of results for race nineteen of the 2019 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship at Silverstone Grand Prix circuit are as follows:
| POS | Driver name | NAT | Race Time |
| 1 | Sasakorn Chaimongkol | THA | 19.32.698 |
| 2 | Kiern Jewiss | GBR | + 0.824 |
| 3 | Johnathan Hoggard | GBR | + 1.365 |
| 4 | Ayrton Simmons | GBR | + 4.565 |
| 5 | Ulysse De Pauw | BEL | + 5.623 |
| 6 | Kaylen Frederick | USA | + 6.113 |
| 7 | Clement Novalak | GBR | + 7.239 |
| 8 | Lucas Petersson | SWE | + 8.439 |
| 9 | Hampus Ericsson | SWE | + 13.707 |
| 10 | Neil Verhagen | USA | + 14.434 |
| 11 | Josh Mason | GBR | + 14.813 |
| 12 | Pavan Ravishankar | SIN | + 15.307 |
| 13 | Nicolas Varrone | ARG | + 16.699 |
| 14 | Kris Wright | USA | + 19.791 |
| 15 | Nazim Azman | MAS | + 27.411 |
| 16 | Manuel Maldonado | VEN | + 1.53.922 |
| RET | Benjamin Pedersen | USA | 8 Laps |
