Snetterton BF3: Mazepin wins Race 2 on debut weekend

Force India development driver Nikita Mazepin scored a victory on his debut weekend in British F3, taking the winning honours in the second race at Snetterton.

In doing so, the former World Karting Championship runner-up secured his first victory in junior single-seaters.

Mazepin inherited pole position by virtue of finishing eighth in the opening race - and led the field into turn 1, with fellow front-row starter Tarun Reddy closely following behind in second.

The Indian managed to get his nose ahead at Riches, but Mazepin fought back to regain the lead, establishing a nine-tenths buffer by the end of the opening lap.

While the gap between the pair remained steady over the early stint, the Carlin driver started to extend his advantage at the halfway mark, eventually taking the chequered flag ahead by 1.976s.

Behind, Harrison Scott took the final spot on the podium, having dispatched Thomas Randle on the opening lap of the race.

Lanan Racing’s Toby Sowery finished fifth, ahead of championship protagonists Matheus Leist and Ricky Collard.

Aleksanteri Huovinen jumped three positions on the opening lap, but faded midway through the race, eventually finishing a lowly eighth.

Enzo Bortoleto, Huovinen’s Double R Racing teammate, finished ninth, while Eugene Denyssen again rounded off the top 10.

Race 2 results:

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Delay
1	Nikita Mazepin	Carlin	16	28'06.426
2	Tarun Reddy	Fortec Motorsports	16	28'08.402	1.976
3	Harrison Scott	HHC Motorsport	16	28'08.719	2.293
4	Tom Randle	Douglas Motorsport	16	28'09.673	3.247
5	Toby Sowery	Lanan Racing	16	28'10.436	4.010
6	Matheus Leist	Double R Racing	16	28'13.064	6.638
7	Ricky Collard	Carlin	16	28'15.684	9.258
8	A.Huovinen	Double R Racing	16	28'20.543	14.117
9	Enzo Bortoleto	Double R Racing	16	28'24.712	18.286
10	Eugene Denyssen	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	16	28'31.245	24.819
11	A.Vaidyanathan	Carlin	16	28'31.494	25.068
12	Faisal Al Zubair	Fortec Motorsports	16	28'31.759	25.333
13	Jeremy Wahome	Chris Dittmann Racing	16	28'39.654	33.228
14	Thomas Maxwell	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	16	28'48.524	42.098
15	K.Mahadik	Chris Dittmann Racing	16	29'29.031	1'22.605
16	Akhil Rabindra	Lanan Racing	15	28'23.876
17	Enaam Ahmed	Douglas Motorsport	15	28'58.584
18	Quinlan Lall	Chris Dittmann Racing	13	28'48.142
19	Ben Hingeley	HHC Motorsport	12	29'35.577