By Marcus Simmons Saturday, April 7th 2012, 17:39 GMT
Felix Serralles, Fortec, Oulton Park 2012Felix Serralles was a surprise winner of the third race of the British Formula 3 International Series' opening round at Oulton Park.
From the outside of the front row, the Puerto Rican launched ahead of poleman Jack Harvey at the start. Although Harvey put Serralles under pressure in the early laps, the Fortec Motorsport racer was able to extend an advantage of more than two seconds on his debut race weekend in F3.
"It's a fantastic feeling, I'm very pleased," said Serralles. "I almost made a couple of mistakes but I was able to calm down and tried to pull away. The car was amazing."
Harvey pushed all the way and was unable to do anything about the flying Serralles, but was satisfied with a result that gives him back the championship lead following his victory in the first race and sixth place in the reversed-grid event.
The Carlin team's Dallara-Volkswagens completed positions two to five as Harvey led a lonely Harry Tincknell and Carlos Sainz Jr, with Jazeman Jaafar fending off Fortec's Alex Lynn and the other Carlin machine of Pietro Fantin.
In the National Class, Spike Goddard completed an opening-day hat-trick in his T-Sport Dallara.
Results - 26 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 40m34.462s
2. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 2.843s
3. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW + 9.303s
4. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW + 12.522s
5. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 22.392s
6. Alex Lynn Fortec Dallara-Merc + 23.632s
7. Pietro Fantin Carlin Dallara-VW + 24.348s
8. Fahmi Ilyas Double R Dallara-Merc + 41.523s
9. Nick McBride T-Sport Dallara-Nissan + 58.214s
10. Geoff Uhrhane Double R Dallara-Merc + 1m09.723s
11. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 1m10.331s
12. Duvashen Padayachee Double R Dallara-Mugen + 1m30.255s
Retirements:
Hannes van Asseldonk Fortec Dallara-Merc 5 laps
Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 0 laps