Sunday, October 25 2020

Carlin's Kaylen Frederick dominated the third BRDC British F3 race of the weekend at Donington Park to claim his seventh win of the year and extend his championship lead to 13 points heading into the final rounds of the season at Silverstone in a fortnight's time. 

Hillspeed's Sasakorn Chaimongkol claimed his first podium of the year with second place, while Kush Maini secured his first podium of the weekend for Hitech GP after Oliver Clarke retired from a clear second place late on. 

Double R Racing's Louis Foster claimed fourth, less than a second clear of teammate Benjamin Pedersen, with Carlin's Nazim Azman sixth.

Lanan Racing's Bart Horsten was seventh having started 15th, ahead of Douglas Motorsport's Ulysse De Pauw, who started fourth, but dropped to 11th on lap one before fighting back up to eighth. 

Fortec Motorsports' Roberto Faria had finished fourth on the road, but was handed a five second time penalty for exceeding track limits, which meant the Brazilian dropped to ninth in the final classification, ahead of Chris Dittmann Racing's Josh Skelton.

Frederick made a perfect start to lead the field away on lap one, holding a margin of almost a second by the end of the first lap, with the Hillspeed duo of Oliver Clarke and Sasakorn Chaimongkol squabbling for position at Redgate, with Clarke emerging on top to hold second ahead of his Thai teammate. 

Behind them, an incident between Ulysse De Pauw and Louis Foster saw the former drop from fourth to 11th on lap one, with the latter falling to eighth, with Reece Ushijima, Azman, Maini and Faria profiting. 

Frederick was already operating in a league of his own, and had the gap up to nearly four seconds on lap seven when Ushijima retired from the race with an off at the Robert's chicane, having been passed by teammate Maini for fourth place a couple of laps before. 

While Frederick was pulling away, Clarke was doing the same to teammate Chaimongkol, with the British driver losing ground to the leader but pulling away from the Thai driver at the same rate. Entering lap 17, Clarke was over seven seconds behind Frederick but six clear of Chaimongkol when his race came to a cruel conclusion, less than two laps away from what would have been his best result of the year.

That left Frederick even further ahead, taking victory by over 15 seconds from Chaimongkol, who spent much of the race fending off challenges from behind. The Thai driver nevertheless secured his first podium of the season just 0.3 seconds ahead of Maini, who salvaged third from a difficult weekend, keeping the title fight wide open heading to Silverstone on 7/8 November. 

With over 100 points available at the Silverstone finale five drivers remain in mathematical championship contention: Frederick, Maini, De Pauw, Foster and Azman. A total of 42 points separate the top three, with Foster and Azman further adrift, but still in with a chance at the home of the British Grand Prix. 

BRDC British F3 Championship, Donington Park National, race three provisional result:

1. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, 18 laps
2. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +15.103s
3. Kush Maini, Hitech GP, +15.412s
4. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +16.549s
5. Benjamin Pedersen, Double R Racing, +17.304s
6. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +17.994s
7. Bart Horsten, Lanan Racing, +18.765s
8. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +19.847s
9. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +20.854s
10. Josh Skelton, Chris Dittmann Racing, +21.166s
11. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +24.082s
12. Piers Prior, Lanan Racing, +24.344s
13. Manaf Hijjawi, Douglas Motorsport, +28.264s
14. Max Marzorati, Chris Dittmann Racing, +29.993s
DNF. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, 16 laps
DNF. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, 6 laps