Johnathan Hoggard wins close British F3 battle at Oulton Park

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Johnathan Hoggard won race three of the opening BRDC British Formula 3 round at Oulton Park after a close battle with Ayrton Simmons and Clement Novalak.

The Fortec Motorsports driver lost second place at the start of the race to Carlin’s Novalak, with poleman Simmons keeping the lead.

While Simmons had created a gap of just over one second by the end of the first lap, the top three were bunched up for the most of the race.

On lap seven of 13 both Simmons and Novalak made slight mistakes and went onto the grass, with Hoggard taking advantage to move up into the race lead.

Hoggard proceeded to slightly increase his lead to Simmons and Novalak, and took the chequered flag to win the race by 1.471 seconds. Simmons was then penalised one second for the error that led to both him and Novalak going off track, meaning they swapped positions in the results

Race two winner Kaylen Frederick took a trip through the grass after battling Kiern Jewiss going into the first corner at the race start, falling down the grid.

Jewiss was able to catch up to the back of the lead battle by the time Hoggard took over the race lead, but the Douglas Motorsport driver fell back again during the final moments. A fourth place finish does elevate him to fifth in the standings, just behind team-mate Ulysse De Pauw who finished sixth.

Double R Racing’s Neil Verhagen made it five different teams inside of the top five, while Sasakorn Chaimongkol (Hillspeed) was able to take seventh away from Manuel Maldonado (Fortec) on the final lap of the race after conceding the position Maldonado early in the race.

Carlin’s Lucas Petersson and Douglas’s Benjamin Pederson completed the top 10, just under 20 seconds behind the race winner.

Novalak holds a 11-point championship lead over Hoggard, with Simmons a distant third.

Race results (13 laps)