Jack Harvey dominates opening British Formula 3 round at Oulton Park

Harvey got the nod into the first corner, and from then on the Racing Steps Foundation-backed driver moved ever-further clear of second-placed Jazeman Jaafar.

"It's never easy," said the Carlin-run Lincolnshire racer. "I pushed as hard as I needed to early on and then reined it in a bit in the last few laps. Even when I was pushing I was well within the limits of the car."

Malaysian Jaafar squeezed ahead of front-row qualifier Harry Tincknell into the first corner, but had no answer to Harvey's pace.

Carlos Sainz Jr pressured Tincknell into a small error halfway through the race to move into third, as the Carlin fleet of Dallara-Volkswagens took a 1-2-3-4 for the Farnham-based squad.

But Fortec Motorsport drivers Hannes van Asseldonk and Alex Lynn so nearly prevented such complete Carlin domination.

Van Asseldonk was another to get ahead of Tincknell and, after setting fastest lap of the race, the Dutchman was applying serious pressure to Sainz when he fell off the circuit on the final lap.

Meanwhile, Tincknell had to defend stoutly from Lynn, and he beat the Formula Renault UK champion to the flag by just five-hundredths of a second.

While Double R Racing's Fahmi Ilyas took a lonely sixth, there was action behind as Fortec's Felix Serralles fought through a spectacular last-lap dust-up between Pietro Fantin (Carlin), Pipo Derani (Fortec) and Nick McBride (T-Sport) to take seventh. Serralles, Fantin and Derani were all recovering from opening-lap incidents, and McBride defended well until a last-corner move from Derani resulted in both spinning.

Harvey's perfect work, which resulted in his second F3 win (and his first from a non-reversed grid) was slightly undone afterwards when he drew the number 12 out of the ball bag, meaning that National Class runner-up Duvashen Padayachee (Double R) - who finished a long way behind T-Sport-run class winner Spike Goddard - will start race two from pole position.

Results - 19 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                   Time/Gap
 1.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW        31m35.051s
 2.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW          + 7.736s
 3.  Carlos Sainz Jr       Carlin Dallara-VW         + 11.165s
 4.  Harry Tincknell       Carlin Dallara-VW         + 23.070s
 5.  Alex Lynn             Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 23.119s
 6.  Fahmi Ilyas           Double R Dallara-Merc     + 37.052s
 7.  Felix Serralles       Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 39.354s
 8.  Pietro Fantin         Carlin Dallara-VW         + 42.102s
 9.  Pipo Derani           Fortec Dallara-Merc       + 53.068s
10.  Nick McBride          T-Sport Dallara-Nissan    + 54.727s
11.  Spike Goddard         T-Sport Dallara-Mugen   + 1m05.418s
12.  Duvashen Padayachee   Double R Dallara-Mugen      + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Hannes van Asseldonk  Fortec Dallara-Merc         18 laps
     Geoff Uhrhane         Double R Dallara-Mugen       4 laps