Hoggard keeps British F3 title hopes alive with sixth win

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Fortec Motorsports? Johnathan Hoggard took victory in the first race of the BRDC British Formula 3 season closer at Donington Park, keeping himself in title contention in the process.

Hoggard, who unlike many of his rivals started the 12-lap race with two new tyres, made a good start and was able to resist early pressure from Douglas Motorsport’s title outsider Kiern Jewiss.

After a handful of laps, Hoggard was able to open the gap slightly to Jewiss before being reigned in again towards the conclusion of the race. In the end, he won by 0.607 seconds from Jewiss ? now out of title contention.

Manuel Maldonado ? who like team-mate Hoggard started with two fresh tyres ? secured his fifth podium of the season with third, ahead of Jewiss’s team-mate Ulysse De Pauw.

De Pauw was overtaken by another title contender in Ayrton Simmons at the start, but the two lost positions at the Old Hairpin. De Pauw only lost a couple of spots ? notably to championship leader Clement Novalak, while Simmons fell to 13th.

Simmons climbed back to ninth, and was pressuring Novalak’s Carlin team-mate Kaylen Frederick late in the race. It wasn’t enough to keep him in touching distance of Novalak though, and the title is now a two-way fight between the French born driver and Hoggard – 38 points back.

One of the best scraps on track was between Frederick and Double R Racing’s Neil Verhagen over seventh, with the pair swapping positions in Verhagen?s favour on lap three, and nearly doing so again late on.

Novalak had a quiet race en route to fourth, ahead of de Pauw. Hillspeed’s Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Verhagen, Frederick and Hampus Ericsson rounded out the top 10.

Race result (12 laps)