It was treacherous conditions at Snetterton, but the rain didn’t dampen the British F3 championship as rounds 15,16,17 and 18 saw the race for the championship hot up.
As the dust (or water) settles on the British F3 weekend at Snetterton, we have a look back at all the action from rounds 15,16,17 and 18.
Qualifying
Once again it was a double pole for the Double R of Louis Foster, when the weekends action got underway in a very wet session.
The Brit had topped the time sheet for most of the session despite a last ditch effort from Carlin’s championship contender Kaylen Frederick, but Foster held out for pole for both race one and three.
Foster was just 0.089 seconds quicker than Frederick, with the American’s teammate Nazim Azman moving up to third at the end of the session.
Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke took fourth and his best qualifying result of the year at his home circuit. Douglas Motorsport’s Manaf Hijjawi was fifth, with the Jordanian’s teammate Ulysse De Pauw just under two tenths further back in sixth.
Sasakorn Chaimongkol took seventh despite being around the top for most of the session with Double R’s Benjamin Pedersen eighth.
Championship leader Kush Maini could only claim ninth, with Chris Dittmann Racing’s Josh Skelton seeing out the top ten.
However, there was confusion come the end of the session with the chequered flag being shown incorrectly on the timing screen and the start finish line.
An amended qualifying result has been published following the 20-minute session.
A Clerk of the Course Decision stated: “During the Formula 3 qualifying session, the chequered flag was erroneously shown on the TSL screen and on the start line messaging screen.
In accordance with Motorsport UK Regulation Q5.3, ‘once the Black and White chequered flag has been displayed the event is over and may not be restarted.’ The British Formula 3 qualifying session is deemed to have finished when the information was displayed.
The amended results are as follows;
Race One
1.Louis Foster, Double R Racing, 2m06.386s
2. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +0.631s
3. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +0.649s
4. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +0.665s
5. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +1.508s
6. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +1.508s
7. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +1.646s
8. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +1.709s
9. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +1.877s
10. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.473s
11. Alex Fores, Chris Dittmann Racing, +3.676s
12. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +4.535s
13. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +4.888s
14. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +4.949s
15. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +5.115s
16. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +5.322s
17. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +5.745s
18. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, no time set
Race Three
1.Louis Foster, Double R Racing, 2m06.815s
2. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +0.276s
3. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +1.075s
4. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +1.444s
5. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +1.922s
6. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +2.216s
7. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +2.735s
8. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +3.070s
9. Alex Fores, Chris Dittmann Racing, +3.403s
10. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +3.406s
11. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +3.628s
12. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +4.432s
13. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +4.968s
14. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +5.196s
15. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +5.726s
16. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +6.250s
17. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +6.271s
18. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, no time set
Race one
It was Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick who claimed his fifth win of the season with a classic performance in a wet opening race of the weekend. He finished over three seconds clear of Double R Racing’s Louis Foster, with Frederick’s teammate Nazim Azman third.
Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke took fourth having started seventh thanks to the timing confusion from earlier, while Douglas Motorsport’s Ulysse De Pauw climbed from ninth on the grid to take fifth. He was followed home by teammate Manaf Hijjawi, with Chris Dittmann Racing’s Josh Skelton taking seventh.
It was a stunning race for Lanan’s Bart Horsten who stormed from 18th on the grid to take eighth place, ahead of Hitech GP’s Reece Ushijima and Hillspeed’s Sasakorn Chaimongkol, who recovered from an opening lap drama to claim the final top ten place.
On his race win Frederick said; “the conditions were really tricky with a lot less grip than in qualifying, so judging the start was quite hard and even I got some wheelspin, and I had a relatively good start compared to everyone else. So, the start was really key there, making sure you got traction and at that point built up my lead and just kept looking forward. At the end I took a couple of chill laps to make sure we brought it home. There was no point in trying to set the world on fire in those last few laps, so I just chilled at the end.
We can really only focus on ourselves; we did a great job in qualifying and a great job in race one. We’ll see how much we can salvage for race two and the rest of the weekend.”
Race One Result
1. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, 10 laps
2. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +3.125s
3. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +15.281s
4. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +17.166s
5. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +18.124s
6. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +23.351s
7. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +35.776s
8. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +38.250s
9. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +52.249s
10. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +53.720s
11. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +54.158s
12. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +1m16.901s
13. Alex Fores, Chris Dittmann Racing, +1m25.715s
14. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +1m36.468s
15. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +1m48.186s
16. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +2m03.613s
DNF. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, 0 laps
DNF. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, 0 laps
Race Two
Hitech GP’s Kush Maini claimed his third win of the year with a confident drive in the second of the weekends races. The Indian driver finished over four seconds clear of De Pauw, who climbed from ninth on the grid to second, with Skelton taking third in other good performance.
The top three finished nearly five seconds clear of Foster in fourth, with polesitter Piers Prior fifth. Foster’s teammate Benjamin Pedersen had a great race, starting from the back row of the grid and finishing sixth ahead of Hijjawi, with Horsten eighth.
Clarke took ninth ahead of race one podium finisher Azman.
On his race two win, Maini said; “after qualifying I’ll take that. We limited the damage, but we don’t want to win the reverse grid race, we want to win the main ones. But today I’ll take it because we haven’t been the quickest and we’ve struggled a bit in the wet. But we did the job in the second race and I think tomorrow race three will be tough. We will see what the weather is like for the grid for race four. I’m happy with that but obviously today has not been my best day.
It’s good points, not as many points as the first race so we’ve lost a bit of our lead but that doesn’t really matter. I’m just a bit gutted that we’ve not done what we should have this weekend. Qualifying P8 as the championship leader is not good enough so we have to look back and come back stronger tomorrow.
Tomorrow may be better for us, anything can happen and in race three I won’t mind the tricky conditions, but we’ll see. I’m not God so I don’t know the weather, so we’ll see what happens!”
Race Two Result
1.Kush Maini, Hitech GP, 10 laps
2. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +4.421s
3. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +9.028s
4. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +13.940s
5. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +14.351s
6. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +18.716s
7. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +21.908s
8. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +22.280s
9. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +26.826s
10. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +30.546s
11. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +36.091s
12. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +36.241s
13. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +42.947s
14. Alex Fores, Chris Dittmann Racing, +43.301s
15. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +45.083s
16. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +56.142s
17. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +1m11.704s
18. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +1m54.790s
Race Three
It was Louis Foster who claimed his third win of the year in very difficult conditions in race three at Snetterton. In soaking wet conditions and with a safety car start, Foster finished over two seconds clear of Frederick, with Pedersen third, the result having a knock-on effect in the race for the championship.
Pedersen held off Hijjawi and De Pauw, both Douglas racers applying the pressure. Sasakorn Chaimongkol and Oliver Clarke took sixth and seventh respectively.
Prior had a difficult start but recovered to eighth after dropping to 15th behind the safety car. Josh Mason and Bart Horsten saw out the top-10.
Speaking about his race win, Foster said; “Kaylen behind me probably couldn’t see much, looking at those conditions! But equally on my side I was entering every corner first and there were so many puddles, I didn’t know where was safe and where wasn’t. On lap one at the exit of turn seven there was this massive puddle that we didn’t spot, and I nearly spun round on it. I aquaplaned all over it, so it was quite difficult to lead the pack, they could just follow where I was going. But the car was amazing, Double R did a great job and it really clicked on towards the end. Initially I was just finding where the grip was and figuring out where the puddles where that would make me aquaplane, and then once I’d got the track sussed and figured out where everything was, I put the laps in and gapped Frederick a little bit.
Mid way through the race he was quite close behind me, I think on one lap he was right behind me under the bridge and I saw that. As soon as I noticed he was there, I started pushing more. I left about two percent in the bag in the first half, just because I didn’t really know what the conditions were like and how much grip there really was. It’s quite difficult in those conditions when there’s so much at stake, it’s not like it’s a practice session where you can push and if you go off it doesn’t matter. But once I realised he was pushing more than me and obviously there was more grip than I thought, I then started to push and gap him, and kept him about two seconds behind me towards the end.
I think we’re on pole [for race four], which is usually good but at this track in wet conditions, the person on the front row in second place usually has an advantage, just because of the way the track is. The right hand side of the grid all the way down to the back, so pole and third and fifth and so on with all those grid spots are damper and a bit more rubbered in so it’s hard to get traction off the line. Once I heard that the start for this race was a safety car start, I thanked my lucky stars really. We’ll see what we can do in the next race, obviously starting on pole we will try and get a good start and see what happens.”
Race Three Result
1. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, 8 laps
2. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +2.271s
3. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +12.101s
4. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +12.664s
5. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +13.343s
6. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +14.954s
7. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +16.406s
8. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +23.037s
9. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +24.450s
10. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +24.814s
11. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +28.461s
12. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +52.675s
13. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +58.496s
14. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +1m01.870s
15. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +1m05.704s
16. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +1m13.146s
DNF. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, 6 laps
DNF. Alex Fores, Chris Dittmann Racing, 3 laps
Race Four
De Pauw took his second win of the year in the fourth and final race of the weekend. Wet conditions continued once more, and the Belgium took advantage of a first lap off for pole sitter Foster. Carlin’s Frederick finished P2, with the American’s teammate Azman taking third.
Local lad Clarke kept pressuring Azman throughout and kept Foster at bay to take fourth with Skelton claiming sixth. Championship leader Maini held third initially, but ultimately finished seventh in a disappointing final race. Prior took eighth, with fellow Lanan runner Horsten and Hitech’s Ushijima seeing out the top-10.
On his victory in race four, De Pauw said; “finally, I got that proper win! It was not in easy conditions; Foster went off in turn two and then from there I just controlled the race. Kaylen behind wasn’t faster than me, I was controlling him. I could see he was not able to get a move on me, so I just controlled the race, managed to bring it back to the finish line in P1, so it feels really good. After a tricky weekend where qualifying was really strange, we managed to recover pretty well and score some strong points again. So I want to say a massive thanks to Douglas Motorsport for a great car, the conditions were really hard and I always had a car that was able to fight for podiums and for the win as we saw now, so a big thanks to them.”
Race Four Result
1. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, 9 laps
2. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +0.896s
3. Nazim Azman, Carlin +14.924s
4. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +15.413s
5. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +15.535s
6. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +24.909s
7. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +31.680s
8. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +34.092s
9. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +36.765s
10. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +39.417s
11. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +39.581s
12. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +40.003s
13. Alex Fores, Chris Dittmann Racing, +40.330s
14. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +40.756s
15. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +41.685s
16. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +42.521s
17. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +49.794s
DNF. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, 2 laps
Rounds 19, 20 and 21 take place on the 24th and 25th of October at Donington Park.
