Svendsen-Cook claims maiden F3 win

The British Carlin rookie drove with intelligence and maturity to take the win from the second row of the grid.

Raikkonen Robertson's Daisuke Nakajima led into the first turn after outdragging poleman Gabriel Dias at the start.

A damp but drying track made the going treacherous off-line, as Dias found to his cost when he tried to drive around the outside of Nakajima into Old Hall at the start of the second lap.

The Brazilian ran wide onto the grass, spun his Hitech Racing Dallara-Volkswagen and retired to the pits.

That left Svendsen-Cook in second and he immediately closed right onto the back of Nakajima's Dallara-Mercedes, before passing him with a switchback move at Old Hall as the Japanese tried to defend the inside line and ran wide on the exit.

From there the race was Svendsen-Cook's to lose, but he made no mistakes and crossed the line 0.658 seconds clear of Nakajima after 13 laps.

Nakajima's team-mate Carlos Huertas completed the podium a further 2.5s back, with Carlin trio Adriano Buzaid, Jean-Eric Vergne and Jazeman Jaafar rounding out the top six.

Vergne jumped race one runner-up Oli Webb on the first lap and seemed content to settle for what he had. The Frenchman cleverly dropped into space to set the race's fastest lap on the penultimate tour and claim two bonus points for the championship.

Daniel McKenzie led home Fortec team-mate Webb to take seventh, while Hitech's Will Buller and T-Sport's Alex Brundle rounded out the top 10.

Menasheh Idafar claimed his second consecutive National Class win, in 13th overall, while T-Sport team-mate and championship rival James Cole spun out at Hislops chicane midway through the race.

Pos  Driver              Car                    Time
 1.  R.Svendsen-Cook     Dallara/Volkswagen     20:08.175
 2.  Daisuke Nakajima    Dallara/Mercedes       + 0.658
 3.  Carlos Huertas      Dallara/Mercedes       + 3.168
 4.  Adriano Buzaid      Dallara/Volkswagen     + 3.618
 5.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Dallara/Volkswagen     + 4.500
 6.  Jazeman Jaafar      Dallara/Volkswagen     + 7.417
 7.  Daniel McKenzie     Dallara/Mercedes       + 7.916
 8.  Oliver Webb         Dallara/Mercedes       + 8.240
 9.  William Buller      Dallara/Volkswagen     + 9.378
10.  Alex Brundle        Dallara/Volkswagen     + 10.860
11.  James Calado        Dallara/Volkswagen     + 11.006
12.  Jay Bridger         Dallara/Mercedes       + 12.355
13.  Menasheh Idafar     Dallara/Mugen-Honda    + 20.228
14.  Luiz Felipe Nasr    Dallara/Mercedes       + 23.420
15.  Lucas Foresti       Dallara/Volkswagen     + 23.975
16.  Maxim Snegirev      Dallara/Mercedes       + 27.317
17.  Adderly Fong        Dallara/Mercedes       + 1 Lap
18.  Hywel Lloyd         Dallara/Mercedes       + 3 Laps

Retirements:

    Driver              Car                       Laps
    Gabriel Dias        Dallara/Volkswagen         6
    James Cole          Dallara/Mugen-Honda        4