Brands Hatch BF3: Leist secures Race 1 win amid last-lap drama

Although Leist appeared to have control over the proceedings, Collard often closed within half a second of the Brazilian, only for the Double R driver to further increase his advantage by going quicker.

The duo were separated by 1.7 seconds at the chequered flag after Leist picked up the pace during the last two laps of the race.

Behind, Toby Sowery took the final spot on the podium in the leading Lanan entry, having passed Raoul Hyman on the opening lap.

There was drama on the final lap as Hyman and Sisa Ngebulana went off at the Surtees corner, dropping to seventh and 12th places respectively.

The incident promoted Douglas’ Thomas Randle and the Fortec of Tarun Reddy to fourth and fifth positions respectively.

The duo had already gained multiple positions at the start of the race, having qualified on the fifth row of the grid, with Randle passing Reddy just before the last lap incident.

Meanwhile, Enzo Bortoleto finished an impressive eighth, having started from the rear of the grid in 17th place and will start race two on pole.

Al Zubair finished sixth with Thomas Maxwell and Colton Herta, who failed to set a laptime in qualifying, ending ninth and 10th.

The race was a major-blow for championship leader Enaam Ahmed, who pulled off the track while running in fifth place.

He joined Chris Dittmann Quinlan Lall, Double R’s Aleksanteri Huovinen and Akhil Rabindra (Lanan) in the list of retirees along with Ameya Vaidyanthan, who was running a fine seventh until the last lap.

Race 1 results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Matheus Leist	Double R Racing	21'57.732
2	Ricky Collard	Carlin	1.748
3	Toby Sowery	Lanan Racing	2.591
4	Thomas Randle	Douglas Motorsport	22.169
5	Tarun Reddy	Fortec Motorsports	24.536
6	Faisal Al Zubair	Fortec Motorsports	29.647
7	Raoul Hyman	HHC Motorsport	29.979
8	Enzo Bortoleto	Double R Racing	31.930
9	Thomas Maxwell	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	32.288
10	Colton Herta	Carlin	32.537
11	Jan Jonck	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	33.758
12	Sisa Ngebulana	HHC Motorsport	34.855
13	Eugene Denyssen	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	41.797
14	Krishnaraaj Mahadik	Chris Dittmann Racing	43.631
15	Jeremy Wahome	Chris Dittmann Racing	46.266
16	Ben Hingeley	HHC Motorsport	58.571
Ret	Ameya Vaidyanathan	Carlin
Ret	Quinlan Lall	Chris Dittmann Racing
Ret	Enaam Ahmed	Douglas Motorsport
Ret	Aleksanteri Huovinen	Double R Racing
Ret	Akhil Rabindra	Lanan Racing