2011 British F3 Round of Oulton Park (Rd 2, Race 3, April 25th)

© Creative Commons / Will Pittenger

Felipe Nasr strolled to a controlled victory in the final race of this weekend’s British Formula 3 round at Oulton Park.

The Brazilian put his Volkswagen-powered Carlin on pole, jumping off the line with aplomb, leaving 2nd place Lucas Foresti (Fortec) to fight off the advances of T-Sport’s Menasheh Idafar.

Nasr spent the early stages slowly extending his lead to three seconds – a gap that would remain until the close of the race. Foresti for his pleasure pulled away from Idafar, to give himself a comfortable lead over the 3rd place man, although Idafar could not say the same himself.
Gunning for the extra two points, Foresti also claimed the race’s fastest lap.

Indeed the T-Sport driver found himself under severe pressure for much of the race, especially in the later stages as his handling became more obtuse.
For much of the 26 lap duration, the Anglo-Bahraini pilot held off Rupert Svendsen-Cook (Carlin), William Buller (Fortec), Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin), Harry Tincknell (Fortec) and Scott Pye (Double R).
Jaafar beat Buller off the line, but the six-car battle would remain static thereafter, although covered by only four seconds.
With relatively few overtaking opportunities at Oulton Park, no passes were made once the group had settled in, with Idafar taking the podium and Pye coming home 8th.

The fight for 9th place was a similar affair with Pietro Fantin just pipping Carlos Huertas (10th, Carlin) and Adderly Fong (11th, Sino Vision) to the flag.
Riki Christodoulou was unable to reproduce this morning’s performance on his way 12th spot; however the Hitech runner did more than enough to beat Pipo Derani (13th, Double R) to the line by a few seconds.
Fahmi Ilyas (Fortec) pressed Sino Vision’s Hywel Lloyd to the end, yet it was Lloyd that won out, with Yann Cunha following the pair home.

Bart Hylkema won out in the Rookie Class. The Dutchman dropped behind Kotaru Sakurai early on, but re-passed on the sixth lap, before running off into the distance.
Jack Harvey came home a disappointing 19th following a mid-race pitstop for an electrical problem. He fared better than his Carlin teammate, Kevin Magnussen, who pitted twice (on laps 2 and 13), only to retire the second time around.

Results - 26 laps:

Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
 1.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW          39m09.433s
 2.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc          + 3.394s
 3.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 22.570s
 4.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW           + 23.124s
 5.  William Buller        Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 23.931s
 6.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW           + 24.537s
 7.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 25.225s
 8.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc       + 26.319s
 9.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW           + 30.052s
10.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW           + 30.517s
11.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc    + 31.375s
12.  Riki Christodoulou    Hitech Dallara-VW           + 34.346s
13.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc       + 38.617s
14.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc    + 42.423s
15.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 42.797s
16.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 43.709s
17.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     + 1m22.290s
18.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen          + 1 lap
19.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW            + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW             11 laps