Scott Pye secures first British Formula 3 victory in the rain at Rockingham

The Double R racer's eighth place finish yesterday gave him pole for race two and the Australian commanded proceedings expertly from the front after beating Carlin's Kevin Magnussen into the banked first turn.

The Dane held second until the fourth lap, when an error dropped him behind a battle between his Carlin team-mates Felipe Nasr and Jazeman Jaafar.

Jaafar put Nasr under sustained pressure in the middle part of the race, but fell away in the closing stages as a recovering Magnussen began applying pressure of his own.

Championship leader Nasr nicked two bonus points for fastest lap from Pye on the penultimate lap, before crossing the line 10 seconds in arrears to the reigning British Formula Ford champion.

"It's been a long time since the last win so this feels great," said Pye. "To do it with Felipe and Kevin behind me and command the race so well is great."

The battle for third came to a head on the final lap, as Magnussen challenged Jaafar from Deene hairpin right the way round to the final chicane at Brook.

Magnussen had a run on the outside of Jaafar, but ran off the road under braking for the chicane. He recovered to cross the line third, as Jaafar lost out to Fortec's Will Buller.

Buller crossed the line fourth after a remarkable charge from 15th on the grid. The Northern Irishman completed the first lap in seventh, before demoting Carlos Huertas (Carlin) for sixth at the start of lap two.

He also nipped by fellow fast starter Menasheh Idafar (T-Sport) when the British-born Bahraini was forced wide by Jaafar on the exit of Deene next time round, before stealing fourth from Jaafar on the final run through Brook.

Huertas completed the top six, ahead of Idafar and Pye's Double R team-mate Pipo Derani, who showed strong pace late-on as he climbed from 13th on the grid to eighth.

Hywel Lloyd scored more points for Sino Vision by taking ninth, while Carlin's Rupert Svendsen-Cook slumped from seventh on the grid to 10th.

Team-mate Jack Harvey fared even worse - finishing 14th after starting sixth, while yesterday's winner Pietro Fantin (Hitech) also struggled and finished 19th after pitting for a fresh set of tyres in the closing stages.

Results - 13 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                     Time/Gap
 1.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc      20m19.368s
 2.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW           + 10.217s
 3.  William Buller        Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 14.592s
 4.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW           + 15.359s
 5.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW           + 15.765s
 6.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW           + 16.229s
 7.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 17.976s
 8.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc       + 18.406s
 9.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc    + 20.220s
10.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW           + 23.827s
11.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc    + 25.638s
12.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 28.719s
13.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 30.610s
14.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW           + 31.643s
15.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc         + 43.699s
16.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 46.835s
17.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-VW          + 59.250s
18.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen      + 1m13.910s
19.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW         + 1m27.725s
20.  Luca Orlandi          West-Tec Dallara-Mugen        + 1 lap