Nasr makes it two wins from three
Felipe Nasr cemented his place at the top of the British Formula 3 championship table with a supremely measured drive to victory in a frenetic 40-minute 'feature' race at Monza this afternoon
The Brazilian started only eighth and completed the first lap outside the top 10, but picked his way through the field with some well-executed slipstream passes and battled his way up to second as the race entered its second half.
By this time, Fortec's Lucas Foresti had established himself at the head of the field, after jumping early leader Jazeman Jaafar (Carlin) at the Rettifilio chicane on lap seven of 21.
Once into second, Nasr closed down fellow Brazilian Foresti's one-second lead and attacked.
Foresti defended from Nasr for all his worth, but the Carlin driver eventually swept round the outside of his rival at the Variante Della Roggia with three laps to go after repeated unsuccessful attempts to find a way by.
Once clear, Nasr powered home to win by 2.1s, while fighting further back allowed Foresti to stay clear of the rest of the field and claim the best result of his British F3 career so far.
Jaafar won an epic fight to complete the podium. The Malaysian grabbed the lead by jumping slow-starting team-mate Kevin Magnussen and running poleman Will Buller (Fortec) out wide and through the gravel as they swept through the Curva Di Biassono for the first time.
After losing out to Foresti, Jaafar spent most of the race locked in a titanic tussle with team-mate Carlos Huertas. This fight also included Magnussen, until the Dane damaged his front wing and fell back.
Buller hauled himself back through the field and past Huertas to challenge Jaafar in the closing laps, but finished half a second adrift in fourth.
Rupert Svendsen-Cook (Carlin) completed the top six after an eventful race that included several missed chicanes. He passed the impressive Pietro Fantin (Hitech) by following Buller through at the Rettifilio with three laps to run.
After being bullied out of the top five, Fantin held off the ailing Magnussen to finish a highly-creditable seventh.
Four seconds further back, Double R's Pipo Derani won the battle to be best of the rest in ninth. The Brazilian finished just half a second clear of an impressive drive from Fortec late-signing Fahmi Ilyas, who capped his series debut by scoring the final point for 10th.
Results - 21 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW 40m37.942s 2. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc + 2.114s 3. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 5.542s 4. Will Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc + 6.125s 5. Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW + 6.437s 6. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW + 7.879s 7. Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW + 8.707s 8. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW + 9.473s 9. Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc + 13.602s 10. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec Dallara-Merc + 14.152s 11. Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc + 15.589s 12. Riki Christodoulou Hitech Dallara-VW + 16.884s 13. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-VW + 21.375s 14. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-VW + 25.481s 15. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 26.166s 16. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc + 26.481s 17. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 28.014s 18. Bruno Mendez Hitech Dallara-VW + 40.745s 19. Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 41.861s 20. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 42.557s
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