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Victorious Vergne closes on title

Jean-Eric Vergne edged closer to claiming the British Formula 3 championship by taking his 10th win of the season in this morning's reversed grid 'sprint' race at Thruxton

The Red Bull-backed Frenchman started on the outside of the third row and leapt ahead of Carlin team-mate Rupert Svendsen-Cook on the first lap. He briefly fell behind yesterday's winner James Calado (Carlin), before early leaders and front row starters Lucas Foresti (Carlin) and Felipe Nasr (Raikkonen Robertson Racing) came together on the approach to the Club chicane on the second lap.

That left Fortec's Oli Webb in the lead and promoted Carlin quartet Adriano Buzaid, Calado, Vergne and Svendsen-Cook.

Webb ran a more conventional rear wing in this race and looked more competitive in the early stages of the race. He pulled out a slender lead as Calado and Vergne worked their way through Buzaid's defences.

Once clear of the Brazilian, Vergne unleashed a blistering pace to catch and pass Calado for second. Having worked his way through with a neat pass on the inside at Club on lap seven, Vergne set off after Webb. It took the Parisian four laps to real in his rival, before grabbing the lead with a brilliant pass, round the outside on the brakes into Club with five laps to run.

Calado repeated the trick a couple of laps later to demote Webb to third, while Svendsen-Cook claimed a lonely fourth after demoting Buzaid at mid-distance. The Brazilian also lost out to Fortec's Daniel McKenzie on the penultimate lap, but rounded out the top six well clear of team-mate Jazeman Jaafar.

Raikkonen Robertson's Carlos Huertas, Hitech's Gabriel Dias, and Litespeed's Jay Bridger completed the top 10, while T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar took 13th place and National Class honours, despite a mid-race spin at Club which scattered a seven-car battle for the final place in the top 10.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car     Time/Gap
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V   19m09.854s
 2.  James Calado          Carlin               D/V     + 1.638s
 3.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M     + 3.215s
 4.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V     + 7.875s
 5.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M     + 8.988s
 6.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V    + 10.440s
 7.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V    + 16.264s
 8.  Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M    + 16.676s
 9.  Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V    + 19.900s
10.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M    + 24.622s
11.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V    + 33.744s
12.  Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M    + 34.124s
13.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H    + 34.972s
14.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H    + 38.931s
15.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision          D/M    + 51.920s
16.  Maxim Snegirev        Fortec               D/M  + 1m07.433s
17.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V      + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  13 laps
     William Buller        Hitech               D/V  5 laps
     Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  3 laps

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