Alexander Sims wins on Formula 3 return at Silverstone

A damp but drying circuit prompted half the grid to switch to wet tyres before the start while the rest stuck with slicks. The 2008 McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner was one of 13 to opt for wets and it proved to be the correct choice.

Fortec's Lucas Foresti (also on wets) made the best start from row three of the grid to lead the opening lap from poleman Pietro Fantin (Hitech) and Sims - who was making a guest appearance with Motopark Academy in preparation for returning from GP3 to F3 for the Macau Grand Prix.

Sims jumped Fantin for second at the Vale before closing down Foresti. After some wheel banging with the Brazilian through the same chicane next time around, Sims eventually jumped Foresti with a pass down the inside at Brooklands on the third lap, despite Foresti's best efforts to bully Sims out of it on the Wellington Straight.

Once into the lead Sims streaked away from his rival at an average of more than a second per lap. He set a sequence of fastest laps, until the slick-tyred drivers began to find grip in the closing stages, and finished up with a 7.897-second winning margin.

Similarly wet-shod Fantin held a watching brief in third - unable to stick with the top two but comfortably clear of T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar, who produced a stunning opening lap on his wet tyres to rise from 19th on the grid to fourth!

Double R Racing's Pipo Derani made slower progress from the outside of row seven, but still made it up to fifth before the end of the second lap.

Carlin rookie Jack Harvey was the only one of the team's six drivers to make the correct call to start on wets. He started 10th but ran off the road at Stowe on the second lap. He recovered to complete the top six, but only just beat his new champion team-mate Felipe Nasr in a dash to the flag. Nasr lost out by just 0.012s but was still the first of the slick-shod runners home.

Yesterday's race winner Kevin Magnussen made it home eighth after finally making a pass stick on Carlin team-mate Carlos Huertas at Stowe with three laps to run. The Dane also claimed the two bonus points for fastest lap on the final tour, while team-mate Jazeman Jaafar slumped disastrously from sixth on the grid to 19th.

T-Sport's Yann Cunha, running on wets, got the better of a four-car battle for the final point, heading Double R's Mitch Evans (wets), Fortec's Will Buller (slicks) and Hitech's Max Snegirev (wets) home.

Results - 10 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                     Time/Gap
 1.  Alexander Sims        Motopark Dallara-VW        21m39.508s
 2.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc          + 7.897s
 3.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW           + 14.187s
 4.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 18.593s
 5.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc       + 28.037s
 6.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW           + 28.597s
 7.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW           + 28.609s
 8.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW           + 29.948s
 9.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW           + 38.211s
10.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 40.214s
11.  Mitch Evans           Double R Dallara-Merc       + 41.811s
12.  Will Buller           Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 44.270s
13.  Maxim Snegirev        Hitech Dallara-VW           + 44.377s
14.  Guilherme Silva       Hitech Dallara-VW           + 53.041s
15.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW           + 53.332s
16.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 1m01.151s
17.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  + 1m03.419s
18.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen      + 1m09.040s
19.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW         + 1m15.127s
20.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc     + 1m42.334s

Retirements:

     Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc            2 laps
     Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc       0 laps
     Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-VW             0 laps