By Ben Anderson Saturday, April 23rd 2011, 15:12 GMT
Lucas Foresti wins at Oulton ParkLucas Foresti claimed his maiden British Formula 3 win with a commanding performance in the first race at Oulton Park this afternoon.
The Brazilian Fortec driver converted the first pole position of his British F3 career into an immediate lead with a ballistic start, while fellow front row starter Felipe Nasr (Carlin) made a poor getaway and fell behind T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar, who nipped up the inside through Old Hall.
Foresti finished the first lap with a 2.2-second lead and drew away relentlessly from his rivals - lowering Nick Tandy's 2009 lap record by a tenth of a second and extending his advantage over the chasers on every one of the race's 21 laps.
Idafar chased Foresti gamely in the early laps, but fell off at Old Hall at the start of lap eight, which promoted Nasr to second. The championship leader had no answer to the pace of fellow Brazilian Foresti, who ran out a dominant winner by a mammoth 18.3s.
"I have to thank everybody from the team and Mercedes that put everything together for the great win," said Foresti. "At Monza we showed the speed, but here we had some speed with luck and put everything together - it was great."
A defeated Nasr was not too disappointed to finish second and extend his points lead over team-mate Jazeman Jaafar.
"I'm not frustrated," said Nasr. "I think it was quite a fair race. He [Foresti] got in the lead, had clean air in front, so he could manage very good laps. I just started saving my tyres - second is quite a good result and good for the championship."
Jaafar made a good start and pushed hard "from the start to the end" to make it three podiums in four races so far this season.
Practice pacesetter Carlos Huertas (Carlin) jumped Double R's Scott Pye on the first lap and then inherited fourth when Idafar fell off. He was chased home by Pietro Fantin (Hitech) and Fortec's Harry Tincknell.
Hitech's Riki Christodoulou climbed from 10th on the grid to finish seventh, with Carlin's Kevin Magnussen recovering from a qualifying crash to finish eighth from a row seven start.
Reigning British Formula Ford champion Pye recovered from a poor start to score his first points of the season with ninth, while Carlin's Rupert Svendsen-Cook also fell back in the early running before claiming the final point for 10th.
Results - 21 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc 31m19.106s
2. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW + 18.362s
3. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 20.043s
4. Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW + 24.677s
5. Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW + 25.839s
6. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc + 27.110s
7. Riki Christodoulou Hitech Dallara-VW + 29.882s
8. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW + 30.644s
9. Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc + 31.168s
10. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW + 34.275s
11. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 39.683s
12. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 43.085s
13. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-VW + 43.679s
14. William Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc + 45.406s
15. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec Dallara-Merc + 46.872s
16. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 51.875s
17. Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 1m11.679s
18. Kotaru Sakurai Hitech Dallara-Mugen + 1 lap
Retirements:
Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc 8 laps
Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-VW 7 laps