British F3

Jaafar wins at Silverstone after Lynn is penalised

Alex Lynn suffered the highs and lows of motorsport at Silverstone today, winning his maiden Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series race only to lose the victory later in the stewards’ room.

Lynn was judged to have anticipated the start of the race, the pole position man creeping forward before the lights went out. Championship leader Jack Harvey was also found to have jumped the start and both men were docked 30 seconds.

Earlier in the day, Lynn had claimed his maiden British F3 pole position, and the reigning Formula Renault UK Champion made the most of the opportunity to lead title fighter Jazeman Jaafar off the line and into Copse corner. By the end of the opening lap Lynn held a 1.4s lead over his Malaysian opponent, and that was as close as Jaafar would get.

“My pace was really good,” said Alex on the podium. “It feels good finally to win my first race but also a bit weird because I’ve run it through in my head so many times. When you finally do it, it seems a bit of an anti-climax.” Alas the real anti-climax came several hours later with his penalty, which dropped him to fourth place overall.

Jaafar, who had trailed Lynn for the duration and crossed the line 10 seconds adrift, was thus promoted to victory, doing his championship hopes no harm at all.

The battle for third on the road was a thriller, with Carlos Sainz fighting for the duration with Harvey, who lost the spot to his Spanish team-mate on the opening lap. They duelled on almost every lap, with championship leader Harvey gaining the upper hand only at the final corner.

“We were fighting the whole race,” said Jack. “On the final lap I dived to the inside into Brooklands and managed to get a good exit; he went quite high and slowish into Luffield and I just managed to drive around the outside of him.” Harvey’s penalty dropped him to eighth, with Sainz gaining second and Harry Tincknell promoted to third.

With the other main championship protagonist, Fortec’s Felix Serralles, in strife also after a startline stall, the net result is a very close battle at the top of the standings, with Harvey now nursing a three-point lead over Jaafar and Serralles.

After the reshuffle, Pietro Fantin was fifth, with Rupert Svendsen-Cook sixth on his return to the championship with the Double R team, ahead of Serralles and Harvey. Pipo Derani was ninth after serving a drive-through penalty – his pit crew were deemed to have lingered too long on the grid before the off. Some compensation for Pipo was that his number was pulled from the hat on the podium and he will start tomorrow’s reverse-grid sprint race from pole position.

Hannes van Asseldonk retired from fifth early on with engine dramas, with Geoff Uhrhane (Double R) and Nick McBride (T-Sport) tangling on the final lap while disputing eighth.
T-Sport’s Spike Goddard enjoyed a trouble-free run to National class victory, leading home his team-mate Pedro Pablo Calbimonte. “I just got off the line well and kept looking forward,” said the Australian.