Christian Mansell took his début BRDC British Formula 3 Championship win in Race 3 at Brands Hatch on Sunday, as pole-sitter Reema Juffali and second-placed Max Marzorati retired early.
The reverse-grid ruling placed Race 1 and 2 winners Ayrton Simmons and Zak O’Sullivan in P19 and P17 on the grid respectively, while Juffali, who qualified last on Saturday, led the field away.
Mikkel Grundtvig started third for Fortec Motorsports, ahead of the Elite Motorsport pairing of Javier Sagrera and Jose Garfias in fourth and fifth.
Sagrera and Garfias were the highest-placed drivers to opt for an all-new set of tyres after Race 2, giving them a slight edge on paper going into the final race of the weekend.
It was O’Sullivan’s Carlin team-mate Christian Mansell who made a stunning start from seventh, as Marzorati looked to jump Juffali off the line before the pair made contact, drawing Marzorati back to the pits to retire.
Sebastian Alvarez found himself in the gravel in the Hitech GP after being hung out to dry at Paddock Hill Bend, deploying the safety car on the first lap, as in Race 2 on Sunday morning.
Juffali dropped to sixth after the safety car came back in, with Mansell, Sagrera and her Douglas team-mate Dexter Patterson making up the top three, before Alex Fores made contact with Juffali at Stirling Bend on Lap 3.
That was Fores’ third incident in as many races this weekend, having taken himself and Roberto Faria (Fortec) out of Race 1, and spinning himself into the wall out of Stirling on the warm-up lap for Race 2.
With Marzorati retiring from a positive starting position, and Simmons crashing out of Race 2 after winning Race 1, Chris Dittmann and the CDR mechanics will have had quite the headache on Sunday evening.
Once the second safety car returned to the pits, Ayrton Simmons moved past Alex Connor (Arden Motorsport) for P13, while Ollie Bearman overtook Tom Lebbon to go ninth and Bryce Aron (Carlin) took fourth from Grundtvig.
Carlin’s American driver set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:21.933 on Lap 7, before Lebbon beat it by eight hundredths a lap later.
Aron was a man on a mission, looking this way and that to move past Patterson for third place, as Mansell and Sagrera looked to check out with two laps remaining.
Championship leader O’Sullivan was on his own understated charge, moving from P17 to P7, while Hitech’s Reece Ushijima set the fastest lap just ahead of him.
But it was O’Sullivan’s Carlin team-mate Mansell who would take the win by 1.9 seconds in Race 3, with a couple of handy positions-gained points to boot after setting the fastest time in Practice and the third testing session on Friday.
2021 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship Brands Hatch Race 3 Results:
| Pos. | No. | Name | Nat. | Team | Time/Gap |
| 1 | 21 | Christian Mansell | AUS | Carlin | 12 Laps |
| 2 | 3 | Javier Sagrera | ESP | Elite Motorsport | +1.991 |
| 3 | 55 | Dexter Patterson | GBR | Douglas Motorsport | +4.190 |
| 4 | 23 | Bryce Aron | USA | Carlin | +4.483 |
| 5 | 43 | Mikkel Grundtvig | DEN | Fortec Motorsports | +4.990 |
| 6 | 13 | Reece Ushijima | JPN | Hitech GP | +5.603 |
| 7 | 51 | Zak O’Sullivan | GBR | Carlin | +6.146 |
| 8 | 50 | Bart Horsten | AUS | Hitech GP | +6.611 |
| 9 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | +7.151 |
| 10 | 34 | Tom Lebbon | GBR | Elite Motorsport | +8.579 |
| 11 | 78 | Frederick Lubin | GBR | Arden Motorsport | +9.058 |
| 12 | 7 | Roberto Faria | BRA | Fortec Motorsports | +10.254 |
| 13 | 18 | Ayrton Simmons | GBR | Chris Dittmann Racing | +10.625 |
| 14 | 27 | Alex Connor | GBR | Arden Motorsport | +11.088 |
| 15 | 99 | Jose Garfias | MEX | Elite Motorsport | +12.344 |
| 16 | 90 | Alex Fores | GBR | Chris Dittmann Racing | DNF |
| 17 | 10 | Reema Juffali | SAU | Douglas Motorsport | DNF |
| 18 | 81 | Max Marzorati | GBR | Chris Dittmann Racing | DNF |
| 19 | 12 | Sebastian Alvarez | MEX | Hitech GP | DNF |
