Collins wins Donington F3 thriller

As the lights flashed green, pole-sitter Takuma Sato grabbed the lead but an ambitious manoeuvre by Antonio Pizzonia put the Brazilian into the lead - and then into the gravel. He rejoined flat last as Sato and Collins lead the field. Brit Matt Davies led the charge as Narain Karthikeyan worked his way up into fourth place, but a spin dropped Andy Priaulx down to 22nd place.

Up front, Sato was struggling to keep the car on track as a damaged front wing after the Pizzonia accident had left him struggling with oversteer. Collins wriggled past at the chicane on lap nine and a lap later Sato plunged into the gravel at Coppice and retired into the pits.

More drama was to come as Matt Davies and Tomas Scheckter clashed at Redgate putting both into the Redgate gravel whilst disputing fourth place - opinions differed as to who was to blame.

Karthikeyan closed on Collins but was unable to find a way past him as Ben hung on to win his first F3 race, Karthikeyan second and Michael Bentwood taking his second podium finish of the year in third.

Gary Paffett won the Scholarship Class and finished an amazing fourth overall and Nicolas Kiesa and Martin O'Connell took their best results of the season in fifth and sixth.

The championship resumes at 2pm tomorrow at Donington.

Results

1 10 C Ben COLLINS GBR Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 30:54.264 28

2 3 C Narain KARTHIKEYAN IND Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 30:55.011

3 7 C Michael BENTWOOD GBR Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 30:57.047

4 61 S Gary PAFFETT GBR Dallara F398 Renault 31:04.440

5 12 C Nicolas KIESA DEN Dallara F300 Spiess-Opel 31:05.177

6 17 C Martin O'CONNELL GBR Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 31:06.642

7 8 C Gianmaria BRUNI ITA Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 31:11.505

8 22 C Andrew KIRKALDY GBR Dallara F300 Opel Spiess 31:13.825

9 6 C Andy PRIAULX GBR Dallara F300 Renault 31:18.524

10 15 C Westley BARBER GBR Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 31:23.307

11 1 C Antonio PIZZONIA BRA Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 31:31.405

12 18 C Warren CARWAY IRL Dallara F300 Mugen-Honda 31:48.973

13 56 S Marcel ROMANIO GBR Dallara F398 Toyota 31:50.367

14 51 S Christian COLOMBO ITA Dallara F398 Mugen-Honda 31:55.121

15 52 S Philip HOPKINS GBR Dallara F398 Spiess-Opel 31:55.973

16 66 S Ryan WALKER USA Dallara F398 Mugen-Honda 31:57.049

17 54 S Craig FLEMING GBR Dallara F398 Mugen Honda 30:59.478

18 77 S Mark MAYALL GBR Dallara F398 Mugen-Honda 20:35.349

19 55 S Atsushi KATSUMATA JPN Dallara F398 Toyota 20:35.688

20 11 C Milos PAVLOVIC YUG Dallara F300 Spiess-Opel 19:09.816