Silverstone British F3: Orudzhev dominates in wet on debut

The Russian, who had never even driven an F3 car until Friday's first free practice session, overtook Martin Cao on the first lap of racing after a safety-car start.

Cao aquaplaned off the track at Becketts, although he rejoined in the lead. But he braked early for Club, and Orudzhev was able to spear his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen in front.

"He was earlier on the brakes," said Orudzhev, "but I knew there was more grip there from yesterday's qualifying so I got past.

"From then on I had a clear track with a good view - I just had one small mistake and went off, but it was OK."

Another error from Cao, when he spun his Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes at Brooklands, presented Orudzhev with a 5.2-second lead over the Chinese racer - who managed to retain second place - at the end of the first lap.

Marvin Kirchhofer got close to team-mate Cao as a result but then fell away, although he pulled a gap on Double R Racing's Andy Chang once he built his confidence in the conditions.

Matt Rao and Camren Kaminsky both passed Peter Li in the first couple of laps of racing, and fifth place for Rao has earned him pole position for this afternoon's reversed-grid race.

Results - 11 laps:

Pos  Driver             Team/Car                 Time/Gap
 1.  Egor Orudzhev      Carlin Dallara-VW      30m09.587s
 2.  Martin Cao         Fortec Dallara-Merc       +8.697s
 3.  Marvin Kirchhofer  Fortec Dallara-Merc      +12.827s
 4.  Andy Chang         Double R Dallara-Merc    +27.392s
 5.  Matt Rao           Fortec Dallara-Merc      +33.623s
 6.  Camren Kaminsky    Double R Dallara-Merc    +41.575s
 7.  Peter Li           Carlin Dallara-VW        +53.156s