Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Ben Hingeley claimed victory in the first of the BRDC British Formula 3 races at Spa-Francorchamps after clashing with Toby Sowery.
Fresh from his double win at Silverstone, Sowery had set the pace in Thursday’s pre-event testing, and although he was beaten to pole position by series leader Enaam Ahmed by just?0.036 seconds, he grabbed the lead along the Kemmel Straight on the opening lap.
Hingeley followed him through into second place and gradually closed on Sowery until he was able to launch a move into the Bus Stop chicane at the end of lap three.
With Hingeley on the outside of the initial right-hand turn, the two cars made contact and the Fortec driver went wide, before cutting the inside of the left-hander and emerging ahead.
Within a lap, the Welshman had built a lead of over two seconds, and he finished up 1.1 seconds clear at the finish.
“As we went through the right I had the inside for the left and I’m not sure if because he took a tighter line, he understeered but there was a bit of contact which pushed me off the track and I had to take to the escape road a little bit,” said Hingeley.
“These things happen with racing and without the contact I would have made the corner quite comfortably.”
Once passed, Sowery was soon demoted to fourth by Carlin’s Ahmed and Double R driver Guilherme Samaia, who converted his best qualifying result to-date of fourth into his maiden podium finish.
Jordan Cane won a battle with Jamie Chadwick for fifth, while Cameron Das took seventh ahead of Carlin team-mate James Pull, who climbed to eighth within four laps from 17th and last on the grid following an issue with his steering in qualifying. He will start on reverse-grid pole for race two.
The top 10 was completed by Callan O’Keeffe and Chase Owen, who had qualified a season’s best of fifth.