Donington, race 2: Lotterer leads Jaguar one-two

Lotterer, who scored three victories in the German F3 series last year, converted his pole position into a first corner lead, then found any possible challenge removed by a collision between Takuma Sato and Matt Davies.

Third starter Sato attempted to squeeze down the inside of outside front-row man Davies into Redgate, but the Briton moved across to defend, leaving Sato with little room. The duo clashed, and the unlucky Anthony Davidson, first on the scene, found Davies broadside across the track in front of him. In avoidance he smashed into the back of Sato, forcing his Carlin Motorsport team-mate to turn around Davies, and then hit the front of Davies's Team Avanti car.

Davidson was out on the spot, while Sato and Davies cruised round to retire at the end of lap one. Davies' team-mate Milos Pavlovic collected Sato's rear wing under the front of his car and was also forced to pit.

That left Lotterer with more than two seconds' advantage over team mate James Courtney, and the Jaguar Racing duo reeled off the laps to complete a one-two for their ecstatic team.

"It looked easy," beamed Lotterer, "but it's not easy when you're in the lead and driving alone. Sometimes you need someone pushing you to know what pace you should be running. But we worked hard on the car for this weekend and it was so good I could set the same time on every lap. Fantastic for the team and a good platform to build on."

Courtney added: "I made my best start ever and took advantage of what happened at the first corner. I got on the radio and yelled: 'Whooah!'. I tried to push for two laps, but didn't make any inroads so I thought it was better to back off and finish."

Championship leader Derek Hayes extended his advantage with another strong finish in third. The Manor Motorsport man lost places at the start, but in retrospect was glad as a good getaway would have put him in the middle of the Sato/Davies/Davidson skirmish. Andy Priaulx chased Hayes all the way for third, with Ryan Dalziel and Gianmaria Bruni rounding out the top six.

Manor's Mark Taylor stalled on the line and set fastest lap on his recovery. He had just got into the points when he went off at Coppice while trying to relocate his dashboard, which had fallen out!

The Scholarship Class win went to Robbie Kerr, who got ahead at the first corner and kept Michael Keohane and Matt Gilmore at arm's length.




Andre Lotterer (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 14 laps in 20m52.182s
James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) + 4.520s
Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) + 6.148s
Andy Priaulx (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) + 9.640s
Ryan Dalziel (RC Motorsport Dallara-Opel) + 14.468s
Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Dallara-Renault) + 14.994s
Jeffrey Jones (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) + 16.280s
Rob Austin (Menu Renaultsport Dallara-Renault) + 25.591s
Alex Gurney (Fortec Dallara-Renault) + 26.961s
Tim Spouge (Menu Renaultsport Dallara-Renault) + 37.471s
Robbie Kerr (Fred Goddard Racing Dallara-Renault)
Mark Taylor (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.816s


Hayes 71pts
Bruni & Courtney 55pts
Priaulx 53pts
Davies 49pts
Sato 46pts