Renger van der Zande produced an impressive performance to give Hitech victory in the opening British F3 International Series race of the weekend at Snetterton.

From pole position, the Dutch driver stormed into the lead in the early stages and was never in serious jeopardy of losing the lead as he extended his advantage out to more than eight seconds at one stage before he eased off to eventually cross the line just under four seconds ahead of points leader Daniel Ricciardo.

"It has been a very good weekend so far," van der Zande said. "I have been quickest all the way. It's been a lot of fun. It's a great effort from the team, they have done really well."

Ricciardo took second having run behind Henry Arundel for much of the race, but when Arundel suffered a gear selection problem, Ricciardo was able to get ahead into second.

Despite the problem, Arundel took third to ensure a double podium for Carlin, while Walter Grubmuller in the second Hitech car came home in fourth place. Riki Christodoulou took fifth for Fortec ahead of Max Chilton and Jay Bridger – who produced a fine drive in his Mygale to take seventh.

National Class honours went to Daniel McKenzie in eighth place overall, while the top ten was rounded out by Adriano Buzaid and Daisuke Nakajima.