Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
FIA Formula 3 championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu claimed a dominant victory in the Silverstone sprint race, beating Yevan David by over 15 seconds.
Theophile Nael claimed the final podium position after a last-gasp move on Trident’s Matteo de Palo.
The front three got away evenly as the lights went out, David challenging Ugochukwu into Luffield while Alessandro Giusti fended off James Wharton behind.
Further down the order, Nael looked to make up places from his 11th place grid slot. The Frenchman charged up to ninth at the start before battling with Fionn McLaughlin into Luffield and moving up to eighth.
Behind them, Wharton had found pace to close up to the rear of Giusti in third. With the Williams-backed driver out of DRS range to David in front, Wharton breezed around the outside of Luffield and into the final podium position.
Giusti found himself slipping further down the order as Noah Stromsted found a way past on the inside of Stowe while further back, Sunday polesitter Freddie Slater continued his attack on Ernesto Rivera.
Nael’s progress continued as he past ART’s Maciej Gladysz for seventh while up ahead, Wharton began to slip down the order. The Prema driver found himself being passed by Stromsted into Maggots and Becketts before De Palo followed through down the Hanger Straight.
Trident clearly had the pace and as Wharton lost yet another place, this time to Nael, Stromsted looked to lunge past David for the second step on the podium.
A queue began to form from David back to Nael in fifth and as the quartet headed down to Club, de Palo fancied his chances on Stromsted. The pair made contact with Stromsted losing nearly a second to David ahead.
The pair locked horns again, this time into Luffield with Stromsted clinging on to his third place. The gap to David had now grown further to 1.2 seconds with drivers beginning to bunch up behind.
Wharton’s fall down the field continued as Slater relegated him to tenth. His teammate up ahead though was suffering different fortunes, de Palo’s challenge to Stromsted proved futile as he fell behind Nael and dropped to fifth.
With three laps remaining, the gap between David and Stromsted had fallen to less than three tenths. De Palo attacked Nael into Luffield, the McLaren junior moving himself into fourth while behind McLaughlin slipped out of the points having lost time being passed by Gladysz.
With just one lap remaining, De Palo continued his progress up the order, completing an opportunistic move on Stromsted after the Danish driver was forced offline from David’s defence.
Stromsted continued to slip down the order as he was passed by Nael into Luffield. The Frenchman’s attack didn’t end there as he squeezed past De Palo at the final corner following David’s robust defending.
Up ahead, Ugochukwu claimed victory by over 15 seconds. David clinched a maiden podium as he led Nael, De Palo and Stromsted.