Photo: F3 Open/Fotospeedy
Nelson Mason, the 25-year-old Canadian series rookie, has continued his astounding dominance over the rest of the competitors in the European F3 Open Winter Series, winning the race at Paul Ricard from pole and grabbing the fastest lap as he went along.
Starting alongside his teammate Ed Jones on the front row, Mason got away nicely and led every lap on his way to a very impressive victory. Brit Hector Hurst, who was third on the grid, overtook Jones on lap three, and cruised to second, as the driver from UAE held off Sandy Stuvik to complete the podium.
The top Copa driver, Matteo Davenia, finished a remarkable fifth, ahead of Andres Saravia and another Copa driver – Alex Toril. Denis Nagulin, Valeria Carballo and Artur Janosz took the remaining points-scoring positions as Cameron Twynham, Che One Lim and Igor Urien rounded out the top five in the Copa standings.
The race saw quite a few retirements as podium contenders Alexey Chuklin and Alexandre Cougnaud retired early on, while Santiago Urrutia sustained damage on lap four and was forced to run at the back for the remainder of the race.
The second and final round of the Winter Series will take place at Jerez on 1-2 March.
Race results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Nelson Mason | Team West-Tec | F312 | 29m15.391s |
| 2 | Hector Hurst | Emilio de Villota | F312 | +6.159s |
| 3 | Ed Jones | Team West-Tec | F312 | +13.463s |
| 4 | Sandy Stuvik | RP Motorsport | F312 | +13.829s |
| 5 | Matteo Davenia | DAV Racing | F308 | +19.411s |
| 6 | Andres Saravia | Emilio de Villota | F312 | +27.403s |
| 7 | Alex Toril | RP Motorsport | F308 | +31.800s |
| 8 | Denis Nagulin | Campos Racing | F312 | +33.501s |
| 9 | Valeria Carballo | Campos Racing | F312 | +33.846s |
| 10 | Artur Janosz | Campos Racing | F312 | +40.389s |
| 11 | Cameron Twynham | Team West-Tec | F308 | +49.308s |
| 12 | Che One Lim | Emilio de Villota | F308 | +51.970s |
| 13 | Igor Urien | Emilio de Villota | F308 | +52.176s |
| 14 | Jordan Perroy | Top F3 | F312 | +1m07.880s |
| 15 | Sean Walkinshaw | Team West-Tec | F308 | +1m09.176s |
| 16 | Nicholas Pohler | DAV Racing | F308 | +1m09.744s |
| 17 | Lorenzo Paggi | Corbetta Competizioni | F308 | +1m23.250s |
| 18 | Santiago Urrutia | RP Motorsport | F312 | +1m46.910s |
| 19 | Luca Orlandi | Team West-Tec | F312 | +1 lap |
| DNF | Alexandre Cougnaud | RP Motorsport | F312 | +9 laps |
| DNF | Mattia Vita | Top F3 | F308 | +10 laps |
| DNF | Alexey Chuklin | Emilio de Villota | F312 | +11 laps |
| DNF | Richard Gonda | Drivex School | F308 | +14 laps |
| DNS | Liam Venter | Team West-Tec | F308 | DNS |