Clement Novalak cruises to victory in first Silverstone British F3 race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

BRDC British Formula 3 championship leader Clement Novalak cruised to victory in the opening race of the weekend at Silverstone from pole position.

The Carlin driver – who grabbed pole position on his final qualifying lap earlier in the day – covered off Ayrton Simmons at the start and created a 1.6-second gap to the Chris Dittmann Racing driver by the end of lap 1 of 10.

The gap had grown to 4.5s by the end of lap six with Simmons, who had earlier been passed by Neil Verhagen, retaking second from the Double R Racing driver.

Simmons was starting to catch up to Novalak but didn’t have enough time to get close to attempt a move as Novalak crossed the line just over two seconds ahead.

Leading the British F3 championship heading into the third round this weekend, the win is Novalak’s second so far in the championship this season.

Verhagen settled for third, 1.793s ahead of Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick in fourth place.

Frederick inherited fourth place after Douglas Motorsport’s Kiern Jewiss and Double R Racing’s Hampus Ericsson collided on the final lap of the race. Both cars were damaged as a result, with Ericsson finishing in eighth and Jewiss in 10th.

Manuel Maldonado finished in fifth for Fortec Motorsports, 3.115s ahead of Hillspeed’s Sasakorn Chaimongkol who had originally started ninth.

Johnathan Hoggard started near the back of the grid due to a 10-place grid penalty obtained at the last round at Snetterton. However the Fortec driver was able to make his way up to seventh by the end of the race.

Between Ericsson and Jewiss at the chequered flag was Ulysse de Pauw in ninth.

Update:?Simmons was later demoted to third behind Verhagen for completing his overtake with all four wheels off the track at Stowe. Hoggard had overtaken de Pauw in similar fashion and has been dropped to eighth behind the Belgian. Ericsson was deemed at fault for his clash with Jewiss and was given a 10-second penalty, relegating him to 14th. The amendments have not been applied to the reversed-grid for race two in order to not benefit the penalised drivers.

Results (10 laps)