Sergio Perez has secured his first outright win in the British F3 International Series after mastering tricky conditions in the opening race of the weekend at
Croft.
The reigning National Class champion gave Russell Eacott's T-Sport team its first British F3 in the process as well as taking the Mugen-Honda engine to its first success since the 2006 campaign.
With the field on wet tyres for the start, pole sitter Marcus Ericsson made a poor getaway off the line and was passed by Perez, Sebastien Hohenthal and Michael Devaney on the run to Clervaux for the first time. Further back, Oliver Turvey had stalled his Carlin Motorsport Dallara on the line, forcing the cars behind to take avoiding action in the spray kicked up as the field left the line. Luckily, no-one collected the Racing Steps Foundation driver and he got his Mercedes engine fired up and rejoined in 19th. However, his Carlin team-mate Brendon Hartley was in the wars, clashing with Ricardo Teixeira on lap one as both drivers were forced to retire.
At the end of lap one it was Perez followed closely by Hohethal, with Devaney in third and fourth placed Ericsson coming under pressure from points leader Jaime Alguersuari, who had made up five places on the opening lap. Alguesuari swept past Ericsson on lap three and started to reel in Devaney, while the Irish drivers Ultimate team-mate Esteban Guerrieri was also on the move after losing two places on the opening lap, moving ahead of Atte Mustonen at the hairpin on lap four and then repeating the move a lap later on Ericsson.
By lap nine, Perez had started to pull away from Hohethal, ending the lap 1.8 seconds ahead of the Swede, who in turn held a 3.6 second advantage over Devaney. A dry line had started to appear on the track and the front runners were trying to keep their Avon wet weather tyres cool by seeking out the wet patches off the racing line on the start finish straight.
