British F3

23rd April 2019

British F3 – Hoggard: I took my chances

Johnathan Hoggard says his Race Three victory was all about taking his chances after profiting from other’s mistakes at Oulton Park.

The Fortec driver took advantage of Ayrton Simmons and Clement Novolak’s troubles at Hislop’s to move from third to first in an exciting final race in Cheshire.

Hoggard says he saw it coming.

“Ayrton got a poor exit out the chicane and Clement got alongside him on the outside. I just saw what was going to happen as you can’t get two cars through there so it was a case of just letting them sort themselves out and getting around the outside of the pair of them.

“I wasn’t expecting it to happen as it did as they’re both experienced drivers so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but when you see the two of them make a mistake like that, you have to be opportunistic.”

Having started second, the British F4 graduate slipped behind Novolak on the opening lap and admits he needs to improve his starts.

“I made a mistake at the start with my clutch control, we need to come back to Snetterton stronger with that so we’re going to do lots of preparation for that. It was a case of just making no mistakes, putting people under pressure and taking opportunities that came my way, and I managed to do that.”

Hoggard is targeting more consistency this season after a run of poor form hampered his F4 championship hopes.

“I need to be more consistent with results this year, last year it was my mid season that let me down in terms of the Championship. It’s just a case of getting those good results as we have done this weekend and seeing where we are at the end of this season.”

22nd April 201922nd April 2019

British F3 – Simmons: We should be aiming high

Ayrton Simmons believes that he and his Chris Dittman Racing Team can challenge for top honours at the 2019 British F3 Championship this season.

Simmons took two podiums and a top in Race Two away from a strong weekend at Oulton Park, and was aiming higher for the rest of the season.

“We should be challenging for the top step, we had the speed in pre-season testing so I don’t see why we shouldn’t be pushing for that podium for the rest of the year and challenging for the title.

“The races last season helped me, we didn’t much testing last year,just the races but it does help to have a little bit of experience from last year to help us prepare as much as we can for this year.”

An incident midway through Race Three saw Simmons drop from the lead down to second, with the stewards demoting him to third after it was ruled that he unfairly, if unintentionally, blocked Clement Novolak after locking his brakes at Hislop’s.

Simmons held his hands up after the race and admitted an error on his part.

“I was trying to push too hard as I could tell the guys were closing in little by little each lap and I just made a small error at that first chicane. I was side by side with Novolak, we were both trying to push for the lead, we ended up going off and that’s how Hoggard passed us both.

“On the same lap I had another go around the outside at the last corner but after that it’s really hard to follow here so I didn’t have another chance.”

22nd April 2019

British F3 – Hoggard seals Race Three victory

Johnathan Hoggard made it three different winners from three races at the opening weekend of the British F3 series at Oulton Park.

The Fortec driver recovered from slipping to third on the opening lap to capitalise on others mistakes and keep his head to take the spoils from Ayrton Simmons and a frustrated Clement Novolak.

Simmons had led well from the start for the first eight laps before pressure from Novolak told for the Chris Dittman Racing driver.

Simmons went off at Hislop’s before rejoining the circuit in front of Novolak’s Carlin entry, with the latter being forced to take to the grass and allow Hoggard past the pair of them with five laps remaining.

Kiern Jewiss had the best seat in the house of the top three’s squabbles but the reigning British F4 champion couldn’t land a blow on the top three despite on occasion looking the fastest of the top four contenders.

Neil Verhagen completed a solid day’s racing on Monday with fifth position ahead of Belgian drive Ulysse De Pauw.

A thrilling battle between Manuel Maldonado and Sassakorn Chaimongkol for seventh went the way of the latter, the Thai driver on more than one occasion needing to work hard to get the better of the Venezuelan cousin of former F1 driver Pastor.

Kaylen Frederick had another eventful race to drop to 14th from fourth on the grid at the first corner after a coming together with Douglas driver Jewiss. The American nursed a wounded car to 12th after suspected floor damage to complete an action-packed debut weekend for the 16-year-old Floridian.

22nd April 2019

British F3 – Frederick takes Race Two victory

Kaylen Frederick was the victor in British F3’s second race of the weekend to make amends for a difficult first race on Saturday.

The Carlin driver had started pole for Race One, but a series of unfortunate events saw the American finish 13th.

A start not without incident saw Hampus Ericsson and Kris Wright come to blows at Shell Oils hairpin, the American retiring on the spot as he hit the wall, while the Swede made it back to the pitlane, with Ayrton Simmons retiring late on with technical issues.

Despite those incident, the Safety Car was not deployed and the American duo of Frederick and Verhagen were able to pull away from Maldonado, who had to work hard to keep Jewiss at bay early in the race.

There were no such issues in Race Two as the 16-year-old simply drove away from compatriot Neil Verhagen and the rest of the field, with Kiern Jewiss and Manuel Maldonado in a race-long scrap for third that eventually went the way of the Venezuelan.

Sassakorn Chaimongkol was next on the road but a 10s penalty for a jump start dropped the Thai driver to 13th, with Josh Mason holding almost the rest of the entire field up to take fifth, with Race One winner Clement Novolak, Ulysse De Pauw, Johnathan Hoggard and Nazim Azman.

Ben Pedersen, Lucas Petersson and Pavan Ravishankar rounded off the finishers ahead of Chaimongkol.

21st April 201921st April 2019

Say what? Saturday’s British F3 Oulton Park reaction

20th April 2019

British F3 – Novolak takes Race One victory as Frederick hits strife

Carlin Motorsport’s Clement Novolak converted a front row start into British F3 victory as he led almost from pillar to post on Saturday.

Novolak led home Ayrton Simmons, Johnathan Hoggard, Ulysse De Pauw and Sassakorn Chaimongkol in an incident-filled race that saw three retirements.
Hampus Ericsson was sixth ahead of Nazim Azman, Manuel Maldonado and Jewiss, with Josh Mason ahead of Kris Wright, Neil Verhagen and Frederick.

Kiern Jewiss, graduating from British F4, was adjudged to have caused the bulk of those DNFs by making contact with Maldonado force the Venezuelan into the pits and Lucas Petersson, Benjamin Pedersen and Pavan Ravishankar out.

Jewiss, recovering from a slow start, received a 10s penalty to drop from sixth to ninth in the overall classification.

Novolak bettered teammate Kaylen Frederick off the line as Simmons also bettered the American at the early stages of the race.

A lengthy Safety Car period followed, before the drivers were again let loose with eight minutes to go with various bits of British F3 car now collected.

Novolak calmly pulled away a small gap over Simmons and Hoggard, himself having recovered from a less than ideal start.

Frederick, the man to beat after qualifying, had an eventful but ultimately fruitless race as he dropped back before a puncture following contact with compatriot Verhagen effectively ended his race, Verhagen himself pitting with a broken front wing.

Race Two gets underway at 10am on Bank Holiday Monday, with no racing on Easter Sunday.

20th April 201920th April 2019

British F3 Fredrick Takes Oulton Park Pole, Simmons on Pole for Race Three

Kaylen Frederik of Carlin Motorsport took the first British F3 pole position of the 2019 season at a sunny Oulton Park at the traditional Easter weekend season-opener.

A tight session that saw several drivers swap pole position times at the start settled down when Frederick took provisional pole midway through qualifying, with 13 cars covered by one second enough to illustrate that 2019 will be very tough to call.

Frederick took charge of the session midway through after teammate Clement Novolak had made all of the early running to take the initial pole position.

Ayrton Simmons will start from third behind the Carlin duo alongside Johnathon Hoggard, with Belgian Ulysse De Pauw and Kiern Jewiss completing row three.

Neil Verhagen is seventh ahead of the returning Sassakorn Chaimongkol in eighth, Lucas Petersson and Manuel Maldonado completing the top ten.

Hampus Ericsson and Nazim Azman complete row six as the top twelve cars remain covered by less than a second, with Benjamin Pedersen, Pavan Ravishankar, Kris Wright and Josh Mason rounding off a 16-car grid.

The story doesn’t end there, with the second-fastest times for the session deciding the grid for Race Three on Monday afternoon.

Simmons will take pole position for that ahead of Hoggard, Novolak, Frederick, Jewiss and Verhagen the top six for the final British F3 race of the weekend.

14th October 2018

British F3: Reaction – Silverstone meeting abandoned as Race Three is cancelled, Linus Lundqvist wins Sunoco Whelen Challenge

Racing has been abandoned at Silverstone, meaning that the British F3 Championship has been shortened to 23 races for 2018 as Round 24 has been cancelled as a result.

Race Two on Sunday morning was an effective non-event as reverse grid polesitter Josh Mason was declared the winner after two laps behind the Safety Car. The announcement means that 2018 British F3 Champion Linus Lundqvist wins the Whelen Sunoco Challenge and has a fully paid for seat at the Daytona 24 Hours in January.

As expected, there was a variety of opinions about whether it was the right decision.

Lundqvist, who wrapped the championship up on Saturday with a victory, was circumspect about the decision.

“The rain has decreased and they had ran cars around the track but they’ve obviously decided it was too wet. If it was as much rain as we had in the first race earlier then I 100% agree. That was undriveable, we were aquaplaning in a straight line behind the Safety Car so you couldn’t race.

“If the rain had decreased and track had got better then maybe we could have had a go, but as hard as it is to say sometimes it is safety first and if conditions are as bad as this morning, then it’s certainly the right call.”

On hearing the news that he had won the Sunoco Challenge, the Swede was almost overcome.

“Oh MAN, this feels unreal. I’ve just got the news and I don’t know what to say. This is….I’ve never been to the States to begin with, Jesus Christ! I’m going to live my dream and I’m going to enjoy every second of this.

“2018 could not have gone any better. I said it was an unreal feeling after winning the British F3 Championship yesterday but this is an unbelievable feeling and a cherry on top.”

Krish Mahadik’s challenge for third place was halted as a result of the decision to cancel racing, and he felt that drivers should have been allowed to sample conditions once again.

“Conditions are quite bad but the rain has slowed down quite a lot. I think we should have been given the chance to do what we are here to do and get out on the circuit and see what it was like.

“Declaring Race Two after two laps was a bit annoying because I was fighting for third in the Championship, I was two points behind and because full points were awarded I have now ended the season eight points away because we finished the way we started. It’s a bit bizarre if I’m honest because the guy who’s last in race one wins.”

Fellow Indian Kush Maini, who claimed third place in the championship as a result, was unsurprisingly less dissatisfied with the decision.

“Race Two was a disaster, I was aquaplaning on the straight at 30mph. I didn’t see any racing happening then. It calmed down for a bit but then it started raining again. At the end of the day it’s not my choice, it’s the organisers and if that is what he says then that is what it is.”

14th October 201814th October 2018

British F3 – Race Two thwarted by the weather: Josh Mason declared the winner

The second race of the final British F3 round of the season has been declared null and void, after an attempt to start behind the Safety Car was abandoned with two laps completed in torrential rain at Silverstone.

Lanan Racing’s Josh Mason was declared the winner after leading the race by default after starting on pole for the fully reversed grid from race one on Saturday ahead of Ben Hurst and Arvin Esmaeili.

Full points have been awarded for the race despite only completing two laps of a scheduled ten, and seven minutes of a scheduled twenty minutes.

Double R Racing’s Linus Lundqvist wrapped up the title yesterday with a win in the first race of the weekend to take an 85-point lead with 72 available from the next two races.

A Clerk of the Course Decision, signed by Clerk of the Course David Scott states:

‘Race two of the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship on Sunday 14 October was started behind the Safety Car in accordance with MSA Regulations.

‘The race was abandoned due to heavy rain and standing water and the cars were returned to the Pit Lane.

‘The results show that the leader had completed TWO laps. In accordance with BRDC British Formula 3 Championship regulation 1.6.4 full points are awarded.’

Mason therefore is awarded the victory, with the top-three completed by Hillspeed’s Ben Hurst and Douglas Motorsport’s Arvin Esmaeili. With the race run entirely behind the Safety Car, the finishing order is exactly the same as the starting positions.”

Race Three is scheduled to get underway at 2:10pm.

13th October 2018

British F3 – Gamble: A good start to the Silverstone weekend

Fortec Racing’s Tom Gamble declared himself satisfied with his start to the final weekend of the BRDC British F3 season after qualifying third and finishing second for the first race of the weekend.

Gamble challenged for the lead on the first lap but was edged out by winner and eventual champion Linus Lundqvist after deposing Billy Monger from second place.

Gamble chose to back out of a risky first lap manoeuvre but couldn’t land a blow thereafter.

“Gaining position from where you start is always great. I got a good run on Linus on the run into turn two, but I didn’t want to make it stick as I was on the outside for Becketts so I thought better of it really and settled for second. I hoped that I could get a good run on him down the Hangar straight but it didn’t happen, it was a great race and we have a good lap for race three so far so it is a good way to start the weekend.”

Gamble has been involved in a tight battle for third in the Championship for most of the season with Lanan driver Kush Maini.

Maini has had a poor start to this weekend, qualifying in 15th before racing to 11th in race one, but Gamble also has an eye on another rival

“It has been really close for third this season and now Krish Mahadik is in the fight as well and it’s all to play for. As ever we’ll be trying our hardest tomorrow to get on the podium and seal maybe another win.”

After two jet-propelled getaways in an ultimately disappointing Donington Park weekend, Gamble made up another position today at the expense of Monger, although the teenager from Nottingham insists there is no secret to the start.

“I’ve always had quite good reactions and I’ve been good this season at gauging where the lights are and getting the perfect jump, which is good. That helps a lot obviously with single seaters being very difficult to overtake in with the aero you have. The more positions you get at the start, the better.”