Home Formula 3GB3 Frederick dominates first race of BRDC British F3 Silverstone decider

Frederick dominates first race of BRDC British F3 Silverstone decider

by Craig Woollard

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick was a comfortable victor in the first BRDC British Formula 3 race of the final weekend at Silverstone, beating JHR Developments’ Ayrton Simmons.

Frederick, championship leader coming into the event, started on pole alongside title rival Kush Maini.

An aggressive start delayed the Hitech GP driver and dropped him down the order, which allowed Simmons to vault into second position. Frederick, however, was able to open a gap lapping, on average, a second quicker than Simmons.

His gap was destroyed when a collision between Hitech’s Reece Ushijima and title contender Ulysse de Pauw brought out the safety car. The pair had been the closest fight in the top half of the field for much of the race until that point.

Ushijima and de Pauw made contact on lap six of 10 while battling over fourth, leaving the Douglas Motorsport driver with a broken wheel and Ushijima with damage that hindered his progress.

With two laps to go, racing resumed, and Frederick repeated what he did in the first phase of the race. Once again, he lapped quicker than Simmons by more than a second a lap to win by 2.608s.

Maini consolidated third to round out the podium in a quiet race for the championship contender.

Fortec Motorsport’s Roberto Faria capitalised on the de Pauw/Ushijima contact to take fourth after a difficult opening lap where he dropped to sixth.

Double R Racing’s Louis Foster was another to capitalise, finishing fifth ahead of Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke, who put a late move around the outside of Ushijima to take sixth on the final tour.

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Josh Skelton, Lanan Racing’s Bart Horsten and Hillspeed’s Sasakorn Chaimongkol rounded out the top 10.

Title outsider Nazim Azman finished 12th behind Piers Prior and is now out of championship contention.

The best battles in the race were towards the back of the field. Lanan’s Josh Mason and CDR’s Max Marzorati dropped both down the order in the race’s final moments, with the pair taking the front row for race two’s fully reversed grid after finishing 17th and 18th respectively.

Race results (10 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Kaylen Frederick Carlin 20m50.749s
2 Ayrton Simmons JHR Developments +2.608s
3 Kush Maini Hitech GP +3.834s
4 Roberto Faria Fortec Motorsports +4.857s
5 Louis Foster Double R Racing +6.127s
6 Oliver Clarke Hillspeed +6.260s
7 Reece Ushijima Hitech GP +7.398s
8 Josh Skelton Chris Dittmann Racing +8.126s
9 Bart Horsten Lanan Racing +9.664s
10 Sasakorn Chaimongkol Hillspeed +10.023s
11 Piers Prior Lanan Racing +10.713s
12 Nazim Azman Carlin +12.258s
13 Carter Williams JHR Developments +13.883s
14 Jonny Wilkinson Fortec Motorsports +15.095s
15 Manaf Hijjawi Douglas Motorsport +18.174s
16 Benjamin Pedersen Double R Racing +18.466s
17 Joshua Mason Lanan Racing +24.881s
18 Max Marzorati Chris Dittmann Racing +24.963s
Ret Ulysse De Pauw Douglas Motorsport
Fastest lap: Frederick, 1m54.606s

Championship standings
1
 Frederick 455   2 Maini 436   3 De Pauw 378   4 Foster 372   5 Azman 340   6 Skelton 296   7 Chaimongkol 287   8 Pedersen 269   9 Clarke 268   10 Horsten 262