Vergne wins on F3 debut at Oulton

The Red Bull-backed French driver led away from pole position and controlled a largely processional race from the front.

A ballistic opening lap put Vergne a full second clear of the pack, before fellow front row starter Oli Webb began to find his rhythm in second place.

Webb edged back to within 0.8 seconds of Vergne, before the Frenchman's team-mate James Calado, who had hauled himself into the top 10 from 15th on the grid, ran into the back of Hywel Lloyd on the fourth lap - triggering a safety car.

The race restarted four laps later and Vergne bolted. The Frenchman again immediately put a second between himself and Webb, before slowly increasing his advantage over the remaining laps.

Webb crowned his own F3 debut with second place - three and a half seconds adrift, while Carlin's Adriano Buzaid made the most of a lightening start to complete the podium.

The Brazilian swept around the outside of Rupert Svendsen-Cook and Carlos Huertas into Old Hall on the opening lap to take third, then stayed there for the duration.

Huertas and Svendsen-Cook fell away from Buzaid as the race wore on, and ended it fourth and fifth, while Huertas's Raikkonen Robertson team-mate Daisuke Nakajima rounded out the top six after jumping Jay Bridger and Hywel Lloyd on the opening lap.

Bridger looked set for a comfortable seventh until he went off on the penultimate lap and allowed Hitech's Gabriel Dias to inherit the spot.

With Bridger in the barrier, William Buller found himself promoted into the top 10, behind Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar and Fortec's Daniel McKenzie.

Menasheh Idafar squabbled with T-Sport team-mate James Cole for the National Class lead in the early stages, but ultimately finished comfortably clear in 11th as Cole battled to suppress Max Snegirev and the recovering Lloyd.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car    Time/Gap
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V  30m21.288s
 2.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M    + 3.491s
 3.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V    + 5.797s
 4.  Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M    + 9.698s
 5.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V   + 11.164s
 6.  Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M   + 12.572s
 7.  Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V   + 15.741s
 8.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V   + 16.942s
 9.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M   + 17.771s
10.  William Buller        Hitech               D/V   + 20.105s
11.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H   + 26.259s
12.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H   + 33.714s
13.  Maxim Snegirev        Fortec               D/M   + 34.159s
14.  Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M   + 34.800s
15.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V   + 35.428s
16.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision          D/M   + 42.381s
17.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V     + 1 lap
18.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M    + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  7 laps
     James Calado          Carlin               D/V  3 laps