B' Hatch race 1: Davidson wins from Sato

The Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda man could see team mate Takuma Sato looming ever larger in his mirrors, but a mistake by the championship winner just over a lap from the flag meant Davidson was home and dry.

Davidson jumped into a huge lead on the opening lap, thanks to what Sato claimed was an anticipated start. "Hmmm..." he said afterwards. "I'm sure he's done it before... It was optimistic, but it wasn't a lot."

Behind there was chaos, as a slow starting Mark Taylor, from third on the grid, squeezed James Courtney into a diminishing gap against the pit wall. The two cars touched, Taylor half-spinning to a halt and Courtney being delayed significantly.

While Taylor sussed out what day it was and which way he was supposed to be going, the course car and rescue vehicle remained stationary on the track. He got going just before the field came round again, but they all slowed, believing that the safety car had been deployed. It took time for most of the drivers to realise the race was still on, meaning that the gaps between the front-runners had extended to impenetrable margins.

Or so it seemed. Davidson got the hammer down early on, but pushed his tyres too hard and paid the penalty later in the race. He also had a big slide at Clearways when he locked up while changing down, and Sato moved ever closer onto his tail.

With just over a lap to go the Japanese moved into position, but got too close at Clearways, losing his front downforce and sliding wide, forcing him to settle for second.

"I felt more comfortable when he was right behind me than when he was catching," said Davidson afterwards. "I could see what he was doing and I know how hard it is to overtake at this place."

Sure is Anthony. Of the two F3 races held so far (the Scholarship Class runs as a stand-alone event this weekend) there have been just successful two overtaking moves, both by Scholarship Class racer Mark Mayall.

Derek Hayes had the loneliest race of all time to take third for Manor Motorsport, while Jamie Spence held off Matt Davies and Ryan Dalziel for fourth. Gianmaria Bruni, Alex Gurney, Andy Priaulx and Courtney (his front wing damaged from the brush with Taylor) completed the points scorers.

The other incident to have an effect happened 10 minutes before the start, when Andre Lotterer came around Surtees to find Davies virtually stationary on the circuit. The Jaguar Dallara hit the Avanti machine, bounced into the air and was put out of action with suspension damage! Davies plugged on with a bent wishbone.

Matt Gilmore led the Scholarship Class race all the way to reduce the points deficit to Robbie Kerr, who was an equally comfortable second. Michael Keohane held off Kazuki Hoshino in the race for third.

Anthony Davidson (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 26 laps in 18m32.835s
Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) +0.824s
Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) +13.270s
Jamie Spence (Duma Racing Dallara-Mugen) +16.122s
Matt Davies (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) +17.038s
Ryan Dalziel (Duma Racing Dallara-Mugen) +19.234s
Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Dallara-Renault) +20.111s
Alex Gurney (Fortec Dallara-Renault) +20.920s
Andy Priaulx (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) +23.212s
James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) +23.741s

Fastest lap Davidson 42.244

Matt Gilmore (Performance Racing Dallara-Opel)
Robbie Kerr
Michael Keohane
Kazuki Hoshino
Ernani Judice
Robert Doornbos