Guerrieri repays crew with victory

The result was also the perfect display of gratitude to Guerrieri's ISR crew, who were handed a fraught job to prepare his car following a high speed crash in qualifying this morning.

British Formula 3 champion Jean-Eric Vergne took a fighting runner-up position in only his second meeting in the category. The Frenchman exploited his local knowledge to the full, running less than a second behind Guerrieri for much of the race. But unable to find an opening, Vergne backed off on the last lap to finish 1.65 seconds adrift.

"It was a very difficult race," said Guerrieri. "Not just because I had Jean-Eric behind me, but because of the crash this morning. I took off the whole left side of the car.

"Even if we couldn't do everything that we wanted with the tracking, my steering was still a little twisted, I have got to say a big thank you to my guys."

Albert Costa battled a vibrating visor to complete the podium. The Epsilon Euskadi racer overtook Draco's Nathanael Berthon for third into Stowe on lap 11. Berthon's race ended at the following corner, Club, when Brendon Hartey (P1) attempted to follow the Spaniard through. The collision resulted in the retirement of both drivers.

The accident promoted Nelson Panciatici to fourth, but the Frenchman was unable to hang on and equal his best result of the season - achieved at Magny-Cours. A charging Stefano Coletti (Comtec), up from 13th on the grid, worked his around the outside of the Junior Lotus Racing man at Brooklands on lap 16.

Guerrieri's win moves him to within a point of Ricciardo's second place in the drivers' standings. The 2009 British F3 champion was the unfortunate victim in a spectacular startline crash.

Polesitter Jon Lancaster bogged down away from the line, and attempted to move across the road to block a fast starting Guerrieri. With Guerrieri already alongside, Lancaster was forced to take avoiding action and tagged wheels with Ricciardo. The Tech 1 racer was sent into a barrel-roll, while a delayed Lancaster pitted for a new nose.

On rejoining the track, Lancaster produced a series of fastest laps to recover to 14th for Fortec.

Championship leader Mikhail Aleshin (Carlin) finished seventh, to extend his lead over Ricciardo to 14 points.

Pos  Driver             Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              45m55.743s
 2.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Tech 1             + 1.651s
 3.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi   + 11.860s
 4.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec            + 19.657s
 5.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus      + 21.286s
 6.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR               + 22.283s
 7.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin            + 25.694s
 8.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP               + 26.249s
 9.  Victor Garcia      KMP               + 26.689s
10.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus      + 32.481s
11.  Greg Mansell       Comtec            + 32.898s
12.  Federico Leo       Pons              + 33.353s
13.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi   + 34.287s
14.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec            + 36.154s
15.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin            + 50.814s
16.  Sten Pentus        Fortec            + 54.811s

Retirements:

     Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  21 laps
     Julian Leal        Draco            12 laps
     Nathanael Berthon  Draco            11 laps
     Brendon Hartley    P1               10 laps
     Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  10 laps
     Walter Grubmuller  P1               3 laps
     Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           0 laps