British Formula 3

Harvey by half a second at Brands Hatch

Jack Harvey this afternoon became the first man to win consecutive races in the 2012 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series, the Lincolnshire 19-year-old following up his commanding Rockingham win of a fortnight ago with another, altogether more closely fought, victory at Brands Hatch.

Harvey led all the way from pole position to chequered flag, making an impeccable start at the wheel of his Racing Steps Foundation-backed and Volkswagen-powered Carlin Dallara. But ever-present in his mirrors for the 22 laps was car 22, that of his team-mate and championship leader Jazeman Jaafar.

Jaafar survived an opening-lap skirmish with Fortec’s Alex Lynn to assert himself in second spot, and the Malaysian never gave up hope of snatching the win. The furthest behind he slipped was 1.5s on the second lap; thereafter the gap came down to less than a second for the duration.

Harvey crossed the line half a second clear for his third win of the year. “I made a good start,” said Jack, “but Jaz was really fast; he caught me up and put loads of pressure on. He was that close that any mistake from me would have meant losing the lead. He did a really good job and it points out some areas where we need to do some work before tomorrow.”

Jaafar made a relatively poor start and that allowed Lynn to sneak through on the inside through Paddock Hill Bend. Jazeman fought back up Druids Hill into the hairpin and regained the advantage around the outside. “Alex made a better start than I did,” he said. “Then I saw an opportunity around the outside at Druids and I went for it, and after that it was just a case of trying to catch Jack.”

Lynn held off Carlos Sainz for the duration for the final step on the podium, and was more than pleased given that he was unhappy with the balance of his car in Friday testing. “The car is definitely better now. If you’d said on Friday that I’d finish third I wouldn’t have believed you, so I’m quite happy.”

Sainz shadowed Lynn from start to finish but could not find a way past the Essex man, and the Spaniard was followed home by Devon driver Harry Tincknell. After a stellar qualifying performance, Nick McBride held sixth for much of the race in the Nissan-powered T-Sport car but was bumped back to seventh four laps from the end by Fortec’s Felix Serralles.

Brazilians Pietro Fantin and Pipo Derani filled positions eight and nine, head of Double R’s Geoff Uhrhane and Fahmi Ilyas. Hannes van Asseldonk followed up his qualifying off with another four laps from the end.

Championship returnees Adderly Fong and the CF Racing team marked their comeback with a National class victory, increasing the advantage over class points leader Spike Goddard (T-Sport) to nearly 10 seconds by the end. Double R’s Duvashen Padayachee missed out on the third step of the National podium with a final-corner visit to the gravel trap.