Rockingham BF3: Collard dominates Race 3 to extend championship lead

The Carlin driver made a superb start taking polestitter Lando Norris and front-row starter Matheus Leist, going into Turn 1.

Not only Norris lost his lead to Collard, the British driver dropped back behind Leist, as the Brazilian slotted himself into second.

A brief safety car period after the accident between Krishnaraaj Mahadik and Eugene Denyssen at Yentwood brought the field together, but Collard got a perfect getaway at the restart.

The Carlin driver, then, maintained a crucial gap to take his maiden win and also extended his lead in the championship, with Leist fending off the Norris pressure to finish second.

Race 2 winner Thomas Randle finished fourth, after his battle with Toby Sowery, the Australian, was all over the back of the British driver, made the move on Lap 10 to go past him.

Sowery’s backward trip continued, as he lost another place to Enaam Ahmed on the final lap, after Ahmed had a duel with Aleksanteri Huovinen.

The British driver on Lap 5, lost sixth place to Huovinen, the Finn taking advantage of Ahmed going wide in Gracelands.

But two laps later, Ahmed with a much stronger pace, retook his position at the same corner, before clearing Sowery, up ahead.

With Sowery at sixth and Huovinen seventh, Indian Tarun Reddy finished eighth, keeping Thomas Maxwell behind, while Quinlan Lall completed the top 10.

Race 3 results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Ricky Collard	Carlin	20'12.229
2	Matheus Leist	Double R Racing	1.228
3	Lando Norris	Carlin	2.182
4	Tom Randle	Douglas Motorsport	12.551
5	Enaam Ahmed	Douglas Motorsport	16.829
6	Toby Sowery	Lanan Racing	17.293
7	Aleksanteri Huovinen	Double R Racing	17.628
8	Tarun Reddy	Fortec Motorsports	18.784
9	Thomas Maxwell	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	20.409
10	Quinlan Lall	Chris Dittmann Racing	21.014
11	Faisal Al Zubair	Fortec Motorsports	21.592
12	Enzo Bortoleto	Double R Racing	23.356
13	Sisa Ngebulana	HHC Motorsport	23.980
14	Jan Jonck	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	27.743
15	Ben Hingeley	HHC Motorsport	31.304
Ret	Jeremy Wahome	Chris Dittmann Racing
Ret	Akhil Rabindra	Lanan Racing
Ret	Ameya Vaidyanathan	Carlin
Ret	Eugene Denyssen	Sean Walkinshaw Racing
Ret	Krishnaraaj Mahadik	Chris Dittmann Racing