Rupert Svendsen-Cook wins British Formula 3 race one at Donington Park

Svendsen-Cook converted his third pole position of the year into an immediate lead with an expert start. He gradually edged away from Carlin team-mates Carlos Huertas and Jack Harvey to win by just over three seconds after 21 laps of racing.

"I had fantastic pace and a really strong car," said Svendsen-Cook. "I felt complete confidence to really push and was so completely in control. My target is second in the championship and this is a great step towards that."

Colombian Huertas made a superb getaway from the outside of row two and sliced between team-mates Harvey and Kevin Magnussen to grab second on the first run to Redgate.

Champion elect Felipe Nasr and Magnussen were both eliminated from contention when Nasr tried to dive inside the Dane at the Melbourne hairpin on the second lap, outbraked himself and hit his team-mate's car.

Both pitted to replace punctured tyres and rejoined to try and claim a bonus point for fastest lap. They eventually withdrew to the pits - Magnussen after stealing the bonus away from his rival.

Their collision left the way clear for Double R's Scott Pye, Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar and reigning GP3 champion Valtteri Bottas (Double R). These three completed the top six in tight formation with Huertas and Harvey.

Double R's Pipo Derani ran a distant seventh for most of the second half of the race, until contact with T-Sport's super starter Menasheh Idafar (up from 16th on the grid) at the Melbourne hairpin with three laps to go dropped him out of the points.

Idafar thus took seventh, though the incident between him and Derani is being investigated by officials.

Fortec team-mates Harry Tincknell (who rose impressively from 14th on the grid) and Will Buller (who ran with the lead group in seventh until a spin at the Fogarty Esses midway through the race) were next, while Hitech's series returnee Max Snegirev got the better of team-mate Pietro Fantin to claim the final point for 10th.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                     Time/Gap
 1.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW          29m29.797s
 2.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW            + 3.196s
 3.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW            + 3.646s
 4.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc        + 4.027s
 5.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW            + 4.717s
 6.  Valtteri Bottas       Double R Dallara-Merc        + 5.200s
 7.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 15.160s
 8.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 16.220s
 9.  Will Buller           Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 16.836s
10.  Maxim Snegirev        Hitech Dallara-VW           + 18.050s
11.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc       + 18.614s
12.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW           + 19.224s
13.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 23.309s
14.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 27.360s
15.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc    + 28.107s
16.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc    + 32.653s
17.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 33.854s
18.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 59.390s
19.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen      + 1m07.015s

Retirements:

     Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW             13 laps
     Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW              5 laps