A first British Formula 3 win at last for Lynn

After the disappointment of losing his Saturday victory in the stewards’ room, there were no mistakes today from Alex Lynn, who claimed his maiden Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International race victory in a thriller of a feature race on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.

Lynn did it the hard way, for although he led away from pole position he slipped to fourth on the opening lap and had to battle back to the front and then past the car of Jazeman Jaafar three laps from the end to secure the win. Jaafar finished a close second to move back into the championship lead with just three races remaining.

Alex made a good enough start but struggled in the headwind down Hangar straight: “I made a really good start,” he said, “but I think I had too much wing on and there was a massive headwind coming out of Copse. Jazeman got a pretty big tow on me and had too much straightline speed for me to respond.”

Lynn also slipped behind the cars of Harry Tincknell and Carlos Sainz, but regained a place from Sainz next time around and unseated Tincknell from second on lap three. By this stage Jaafar was 2.5s ahead; within three laps Lynn had whittled that down to half a second.

There followed an 11-lap tussle between Jaafar and Lynn for victory which was settled in Alex’s favour under braking for Brooklands on the 18th lap. “I genuinely thought my race was over… I can’t quite believe I caught him back up again, let alone passed him.”

Jaafar was far from despondent not to have won. The Malaysian came to Silverstone 20 points off the championship lead and leaves the circuit with a six-point advantage. “The goal was to bounce back after all the points I lost earlier in the year,” said Jazeman. “We never stopped pushing, had a bit of luck and it turned out a good weekend. I’m glad I’m leading the championship and I’m looking forward to Donington ­ it will be an exciting weekend.”

The man closest on points to Jaafar left Silverstone in an ambulance. Felix Serralles was engaged in a long battle over seventh place with the other man in the title hunt, Jack Harvey, which at times saw both men taking wide lines and excursions. In one such incident a couple of laps from the flag Serralles’ car went airborne after hitting a trackside obstruction; it was a heavy landing and Felix was sufficiently in pain post-race that he had to be carefully extracted from his car; he was taken to hospital for checks. Felix was discharged later in the evening with a bruised coccyx; he hopes to be back in his car on testing duties later in the week.

There was a major battle also over third place, between Tincknell and Fortec’s Hannes van Asseldonk, which went the Englishman’s way after many laps of tough defending. “That was one of the hardest races I’ve ever done,” said Tincknell. “I was pushing as hard as I could and in the last four or five laps Hannes was really strong; I’ve never battled so hard to stay in front.”

After losing his early third to Lynn, Sainz was then caught napping by van Asseldonk at Village on the 10th lap. Carlos continued to fifth, ahead of his Carlin team-mate Pietro Fantin, with Serralles seventh after passing Harvey into Copse on the final lap. Double R drivers Rupert Svendsen-Cook and Geoff Uhrhane completed the top 10.

Spike Goddard led the National class from start to finish ahead of his title rival Duvashen Padayachee, the Australian frustrated to have been unable to pass the International cars of Pipo Derani and Nick McBride, running 11th and 12th, which allowed Padayachee to close to half a second behind by the end.

 
Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series

Round 26, Silverstone Grand Prix 9/9/2012

20 laps / 73.21 miles


Provisional results International class

1  Alex LYNN / GBR,  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes  39m 03.812s / 112.44mph

2  Jazeman JAAFAR / MAS,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +1.810s

3  Harry TINCKNELL / GBR,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +11.877s

4  Hannes VAN ASSELDONK / NED,  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes  +12.262s

5  Carlos SAINZ / ESP,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +15.666s

6  Pietro FANTIN / BRA,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +18.939s

7  Felix SERRALLES / PUR,  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes  +25.656s

8  Jack HARVEY / GBR,  Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen  +28.503s

9  Rupert SVENDSEN-COOK / GBR,  Double R Dallara-Mercedes  +28.947s

10  Geoff UHRHANE / AUS,  Double R Dallara-Mercedes  +35.071s

11  Pipo DERANI / BRA,  Fortec Dallara-Mercedes  +48.679s

12  Nick McBRIDE / AUS,  T-Sport Dallara-Nissan  +48.923s


National class

1  Spike GODDARD / AUS,  T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda  +49.429s

2  Duvashen PADAYACHEE / AUS,  Double R Dallara-Mugen Honda  +49.994s

3  Pedro Pablo CALBIMONTE / BOL,  T-Sport Dallara-Mugen Honda  +51.057s


Fastest lap Lynn 1m 55.956s / 113.64mph

Full timesheets http://bit.ly/OP0jFX

Provisional championship standings

1 Jaafar 282 points; 2 Serralles 276; 3 Harvey 259; 4= Sainz & Lynn 226; 6 Tincknell 193; 7 Fantin 172; 8 Derani 119; 9 van Asseldonk 113; 10 McBride 81 etc

National class 1 Goddard 388; 2 Padayachee 345; 3 Adderly Fong 161; 4 Calbimonte 82.

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