Race one winner Mike Conway held pole position for the second of Silverstone’s two Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 races at the weekend, and the margin by which he had acquired it – more than three tenths of a second clear of the rest of the field – suggested he was not going to relinquish his handsome points advantage without a stern fight.
Although he made a less than sparkling start, the championship leader held onto his lead through on the opening lap, as Oliver Jarvis, the persistently unlucky Christian Bakkerud and Bruno Senna went three abreast into Copse and it was the Dane who emerged ahead.
As the top two quickly proved to be the class of the field and began to pull out a gap over the rest of the pack, Senna attempted to drive all the way around the outside of Jarvis at Stowe but was rebuffed, which allowed Salvador Duran to sneak through on the entry to Vale. The Brazilian would lose further places by running off-line at Club later in the opening lap, crossing the line down in seventh place.
With Basil Shaaban and earlier star Yelmer Buurman both departing the fray in separate incidents, Conway and Bakkerud were going at it hammer and tongs at the head of the field, with the duelling pair separated by a mere six tenths of a second. Jarvis continued to hold third, from Duran, Jonathan Kennard aiming to make up for his race one indiscretion, Maro Engel and the luckless Senna, now coming under pressure from James Walker and Stephen Jelley behind, having to fight a continual rearguard action.
With the gap at the front narrowing slightly, Bakkerud was clearly intent on depriving Conway of a double victory, and determined to add to his second place podium spoils from
Oulton Park back in April. Kennard was also coming under attack from Engel and Senna for his fifth place. After Engel made it through, a similar move by Senna failed to come off and he had to defend robustly against the closely-following Walker.
