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Petersson powers to maiden British F3 win at Snetterton

Sunday, May 19 2019

Polesitter Lucas Petersson claimed his first BRDC British F3 win with a lights to flag victory in race two at Snetterton this morning. He took the flag over three seconds clear of near namesake Benjamin Pedersen who soared from seventh to the podium, with Neil Verhagen climbing to third from 11th on the grid.

Kaylen Frederick claimed fourth, a second and a half away from the podium, with Nazim Azman taking his best result of the year so far with fifth. Clement Novalak climbed from 15th on the grid to take sixth ahead of Double R's Hampus Ericsson, with race one winner Johnathan Hoggard eighth from 16th. 

Manuel Maldonado and Pavan Ravishankar completed the top-10.

At the start, Petersson had a great getaway from the reverse grid pole, immediately building an advantage over Fortec's Kris Wright, while further behind Ayrton Simmons ran wide at Riches and dropped to the tail of the field. Pedersen, on a lap one charge had worked his way up to second, though Petersson was already leading by over two seconds.

Behind, the majority of the rest of the field was bunched up behind Wright, and heading to Riches on lap two, Josh Mason challenged Nazim Azman for position, going around the outside but running wide and hitting the barriers lightly, bringing out the safety car and wiping out Petersson's lead. With the reverse grid format meaning yesterday's podium drivers started at the back, there were strong opening laps for Johnathan Hoggard, Clement Novalak, and Kiern Jewiss, who climbed to seventh, 10th and eighth respectively from 16th, 15th and 14th respectively. 

The race resumed on lap four, and Petersson again began to build a lead, while behind there was some fierce racing as several drivers challenging Wright, including a three wide moment at Agostini between the American, Novalak and Azman. 

Petersson led by three quarters of a second after the restart, while the rest of the order started to settle down, though there was more drama on lap six as Jewiss, who had climbed to sixth pitted to repair front wing damage sustained after tapping Azman at Wilson, while Simmons endured more drama after contact with Chaimongkol sent him down the order again . 

By that point, Petersson's lead was up to 1.6 seconds. The Swede extended his lead by around half a second a lap until the end of the race to take the flag by over three seconds from Pedersen, who clinched his first British F3 podium, one and a half seconds clear of Verhagen, who gained eight places on his starting position. 

Frederick in fourth was another to make big gains, climbing from 10th to take fourth, while Novalak, Ericsson and Hoggard gained nine, six and eight places respectively. 

The top-three drivers were presented with their trophies on the podium by BRDC member and British GT racer Bradley Ellis.

The third BRDC British F3 race of the weekend is due to start at 14.10, with live streaming available on the official series website.

BRDC British F3 Championship, Snetterton race two result:

1. Lucas Petersson, Carlin, 10 laps
2. Benjamin Pedersen, Douglas Motorsport, +3.100s
3. Neil Verhagen, Double R Racing, +4.726s
4. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, +6.140s
5. Nazim Azman, Chris Dittmann Racing, +7.633s
6. Clement Novalak, Carlin, +9.985s
7. Hampus Ericsson, Double R Racing, +10.343s
8. Johnathan Hoggard, Fortec Motorsports, +12.155s
9. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +12.582s
10. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +13.548s
11. Ayrton Simmons, Chris Dittmann Racing, +18.442s
12. Kris Wright, Fortec Motorsports, +20.338s
13. Kiern Jewiss, Douglas Motorsport, +1m20.918s
14. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +1 lap
15. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +1 lap
DNF. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, 1 lap