Marko Asmer bounced back from retirement in race one at
Snetterton to secure his fifth win of the British F3 International Series season at the Norfolk venue in round eight.
Behind the Estonian, Alberto Valerio and Sam Bird returned to the podium for the second time in the day as Carlin snared five of the available six podiums from the weekend.
Asmer led away at the start, but was under pressure from Bird as the field streamed into Riches for the first time. Behind however, mayhem ensued as five cars ended up on the grass with all them rejoining except the Dallara of Leo Mansell. However the incident shook up the order in the National Class and allowed Viktor Jensen to leap from seventh into the class lead at the end of the opening lap.
At the front it was Asmer from Bird and Valerio with Maro Engel ahead of Atte Mustonen and Rodolofo Gonzalez. In a rerun of the first race Bird was able to track the lead car, maintaining a 0.4 second gap to Asmer while holding off his Brazilian team-mate in third place. However Bird was starting to suffer from oversteer and Valerio saw his opportunity. On lap seven he seized it and moved ahead of Bird into second and set off after Asmer, who had moved away from the battling Carlin pair.
On lap 11 the field was bunched up as the Safety Car was deployed to recover the stranded Dallara of Rodolfo Gonzalez at the Esses. Asmer used his vast experience to maintain his lead at the restart while Valerio was pulling away from the struggling Bird, who now had to fend off the attentions of Engel.
In the National Class Jensen got a good restart to hold onto the lead while Alastair Jackson lost his second place position to Frankie Cheng and then was passed by Hamad Al Fardan.
With the Safety Car period slowing things up, the race was reduced to 26 laps and as the cars came round for the final lap it was Asmer from Valerio, who was now 1.7 seconds adrift of the Estonian and in turn had opened up a 4.7 second gap to third placed Bird.
