Having secured pole position for the opening race at
Oulton Park, Maro Engel led from start to finish to take victory in the first race of the British F3 International season.
Engel made the best start when the lights went green to lead into Old Hall for the first time and held off the challenge of Hitech driver Marko Asmer to eventually triumph by a margin of just under a second. Stephen Jelley, who had started from the front row but didn't get away well, completed the podium.
In a race that would become somewhat processional with little in the way of overtaking, most of the changes for position came in the opening seconds as the field left the grid, with Asmer making the best start to move into second behind Engel and Sam Bird getting away well from row three to go fourth ahead of Sebastien Hohenthal and Rodolfo Gonzalez – the reigning National Class champion making his maiden appearance in the full Championship class.
An incident on the opening lap removed Ricardo Teixeira, Francesco Castellacci and Sergio Perez from the action, while Rodolfo Avila would return to the pit-lane to retire and saw the Safety Car brought onto the track.
The restart saw Asmer make a move to try and pass Engel as the leader missed a gear coming out of Lodge, but despite looking on the outside into Old Hall, the Estonian thought better of it than to run onto the loose stuff on the edge of the circuit and settled back into second.
Although very light drizzle started to fall as the race progressed, Engel was able to control the race from the front to take victory, with Asmer and Jelley rounding out the podium. Bird took fourth, despite the best efforts of Hohenthal in the closing stages to take the place. Jonathan Kennard – who will start race two from pole position – took sixth after a race long battle with Gonzalez while Atte Mustonen, Niall Breen and Greg Mansell completed the top ten.
National Class honours went to an ecstatic Frankie Cheng, with Sean Pettersen second and Viktor Jensen third.
