Rounds five, six and seven kicked off at Donington Park over the weekend of the 15th/16th of August. In the first of three trips to the Leicestershire circuit there were maiden wins and personal bests for drivers and teams alike, but ultimately American driver Kaylen Fredrick extended his championship lead across the whole weekend.
Qualifying Race One
The Carlin secured pole position for the first race of the weekend at with a time of 1m25.085 seconds. This put him almost a tenth ahead of Double R’s Louis Foster, who continued with impressive form in his first F3 season. A late charge from Hitech GP’s Reece Ushijima was enough to get him P3 for race one.
Qualifying Race Two
The race two grid saw Kush Maini’s second-best time secure pole. It was just 0.007 seconds ahead of Foster, who will start from second, with Australian Bart Horsten third.
However, after qualifying, driver penalties have been issued to three drivers for yellow flag offences.
Following investigations and having heard evidence from the competitors, the Clerk of the Course found that the drivers of car 50 (Bart Horsten), 62 (Oliver Clarke) and 99 (Guilherme Peixoto) failed to comply with yellow flag signals.
Yellow flags were displayed at Coppice corner as the car of Carter Williams was in the gravel trap, and timekeeping lap analysis, data logging and onboard video evidence showed that the three drivers set their fastest sector two times of the qualifying session while a waved yellow flag was displayed.
Accordingly, under Motorsport UK Regulation G5.3, all three drivers have been disqualified from the results of qualifying, meaning their grid positions for races one and three will be affected.
So, the qualifying results are as follows;
Race One Qualifying Result
1. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin 1m25.085s
2. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +0.087s
3. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +0.106s
4. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +0.157s
5. Kiern Jewiss, Douglas Motorsport, +0.290s
6. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +0.337s
7. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.347s
8. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +0.395s
9. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +0.396s
10. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +0.440s
11. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +0.467s
12. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +0.581s
13. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +0.777s
14. Nico Varrone, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.939s
15. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +0.984s
16. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +1.380s
DQ. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed
DQ. Guilherme Peixoto, Carlin
DQ. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing
Race Two Qualifying
1. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, 1m25.243s
2. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +0.007s
3. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +0.100s
4. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +0.153s
5. Kiern Jewiss, Douglas Motorsport, +0.182s
6. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.252s
7. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +0.308s
8. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +0.329s
9. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +0.334s
10. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +0.343s
11. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +0.395s
12. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +0.413s
13. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +0.480s
14. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +0.630s
15. Guilherme Peixoto, Carlin, +0.651s
16. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +0.697s
17. Nico Varrone, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.822s
18. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +0.828s
19. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +1.444s
DQ. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed
DQ. Guilherme Peixoto, Carlin
DQ. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing
On his pole position for race one, Frederick said; “we weren’t looking extremely strong in practice, we had some good sessions yesterday, but we put it all together for one quick lap. It was a bit unfortunate that I couldn’t get a second quicker lap in because I went off at the chicane and ruined my second best lap so I start P4 I think for race three, but I’m happy with the pole position nevertheless.
That [to make it three wins in a row after the Oulton Park double] would be the goal, the plan is to get a good start again and then keep focusing forward. We will see how the start goes but I’m quite confident with my starting ability and I’ll get off the line quite well hopefully and focus forward like I did at Oulton Park.”
Race One
It was Louis Foster of Double R who claimed his maiden BRDC British F3 win in race one at Donington Park. The British driver, who has showed a great deal of promise in the opening round at Oulton park last time out, finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Hitech’s Reece Ushijima, with fellow Double R teammate Kush Maini taking third.
Fellow Brit and Lanan driver Piers Prior was fourth, with Douglas Motorsport’s Kiern Jewiss fifth. Chris Dittmann Racing’s Josh Skelton took P6 with Sasakorn Chaimongkol in seventh. Championship leader Kaylen Frederick took eighth after a race that saw him crash out on the 13th lap. A timing error meant that the chequered flag was inadvertently shown incorrectly at the end of lap 13, instead of lap 12, so the final result was taken from the end of that lap in accordance with Motorsport UK regulations. Benjamin Pedersen and Nazim Azman was out the top-10.
On his race one win, Foster said; “we thought if we got a good start, we might be able to fight for the lead. I got a decent start, probably a bit better than Kaylen’s start, I messed up the initial phase of the start which I was a bit disappointed with. But then he went off on the first lap at the chicane, so we took the lead from there and managed the tyres and the race from there.
It [the rain at the start] didn’t really affect it at all, probably more mentally, wondering if when you went into a corner whether it was going to be slippery or not, but I don’t think there was any change in the grip to be honest.
Reece was very quick at the start, but he decided to give me a bit of a chance at the end to give me some breathing room!
Tomorrow (16th) we start dead last, a bit of a fight from the back which should be a bit of fun, and then the next race I’ll be beside Kush and hopefully we can repeat this, but we will see.”
- Louis Foster, Double R Racing, 12 laps
2. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +1.424s
3. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +1.740s
4. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +2.440s
5. Kiern Jewiss, Douglas Motorsport, +3.240s
6. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +4.041s
7. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +7.037s
8. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +7.223s
9. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +7.624s
10. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +8.824s
11. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +9.115s
12. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +10.510s
13. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +10.754s
14. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +11.022s
15. Guilherme Peixoto, Carlin, +11.387s
16. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +18.652s
17. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +20.581s
18. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +1m01.685s
DNF. Nico Varrone, Chris Dittmann Racing, 1 lap completed
Race Two
It was Douglas Motorsport’s Ulysse De Pauw who joined Foster in securing a maiden BRDC British F3 victory at a very wet Donington Park. The Belgium dominated the reversed grid race two with a light to flag victory, despite late pressure from Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick, who drove a superb race, climbing from 11th on the grid to second. Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke saw out the podium with third, his first top-three result in British F3.
It was another good race for Lanan as Bart Horsten took fourth ahead of Double R Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen. Race one’s podium finisher Kush Maini climbed from 16th on the grid to take sixth for Hitech GP. Maini finished ahead of Carlin’s Nazim Azman, with the winner of race one, Louis Foster, going from 18th to eighth. JHR Developments’ Carter Williams claimed his first top-10 finish for both the team and driver with ninth, ahead of Lanan Racing’s Josh Mason.
On his maiden victory, De Pauw said; “after yesterday we are really happy. I had a solid start, went away from the line very well. In the first few laps I saw that I was very fast compared to the guys behind, so I didn’t really push hard. I was just controlling the race, and then I saw Kaylen coming back at the end and the gap was dropping off quite massively, and I just didn’t really manage to get out of my comfort zone. I stayed driving really calm and not taking any risks and brought it back home. So a big thanks to the team, and a first win in British F3 for me.
Last year I didn’t really have any crashes or whatever, so I was always at the front, but not enough to win the main races, and in the reverse grid races I was always starting towards the back. This year I had a crash yesterday so we started at the front, but I was confident that we could easily grab the win and we made it.”
- Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, 12 laps
Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +2.140s
3. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +10.614s
4. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +12.181s
5. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +12.491s
6. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +15.775s
7. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +15.984s
8. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +18.292s
9. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +21.336s
10. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +21.838s
11. Nico Varrone, Chris Dittmann Racing, +22.175s
12. Kiern Jewiss, Douglas Motorsport, +23.179s
13. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +26.778s
14. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +27.200s
15. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +33.828s
16. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +50.150s
17. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +1m07.662s
DNF. Guilherme Peixoto, Carlin, 9 laps
DNF. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, 2 laps
Race Three
Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick claimed his third win of the season and took a commanding lead in the championship in the third race of the weekend at Donington Park. A gap of over 11 seconds to Chris Dittmann Racing’s Josh Skelton in second showed the scope of the win in a dominant display. Hitech GP’s Kush Maini took P3 after just missing out on P2.
Skelton’s teammate Nico Varrone took fourth place ahead of Douglas Motorsport’s Kiern Jewiss, with Double R’s Louis Foster took P6. Foster’s teammate Benjamin Pedersen was seventh ahead of Douglas Motorsport’s race two winner Ulysse De Pauw, with Carlin’s Guilherme Peixoto and Nazim Azman seeing out the top-10.
On another race win, Frederick said; “I honestly didn’t really expect this, I was just going to settle in for a podium position, but I got a really good start, almost got the lead at off the start, but he [Maini] kept hold of it for a couple of laps. He told me he had a couple of issues so he was struggling in front of me and we just had a bit too much pace for him I guess. Once I got ahead it was just clean air for myself, I focused on putting in a quick lap and it seemed like they were struggling behind. I’m really happy with the performance of the team today, we had a great recovery earlier and now a win, it’s just awesome, the best way to end a weekend.
It [overtaking Maini] was quite close. The only real place you can get by here is the outside where there is more grip so you have to force them onto a tighter line and try and get around the outside which is just what I did. I tried it the corner before, it didn’t work out, but it set him up for the last one and it seemed to just hold.
Honestly after yesterday’s race I was really a bit gutted, and the way we have bounced back today is absolutely awesome, so I’m really chuffed. I don’t know where I stand in the championship but I think we’ve salvaged quite a few points this weekend considering we had a really bad race yesterday.”
1. Kaylen Frederick Carlin, 12 laps
2. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +11.112s
3. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +11.213s
4. Nico Varrone, Chris Dittmann Racing, +11.824s
5. Kiern Jewiss, Douglas Motorsport, +12.405s
6. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +12.692s
7. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +13.857s
8. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +15.370s
9. Guilherme Peixoto, Carlin, +17.934s
10. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +18.072s
11. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +20.574s
12. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +25.230s
13. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +37.863s
14. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +38.575s
15. Manaf Hijjawi, Lanan Racing, +40.252s
16. Max Marzorati, JHR Developments, +57.096s
17. Carter Williams, JHR Developments, +57.273s
18. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +1 lap
DNF. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, 11 laps
Rounds eight, nine, ten and eleven will take place over the weekend of 29th and 30th August at Brands Hatch in Kent.
