British F3: Lundqvist takes the Title in shortened F3 round

Linus Lundqvist was crowned BRDC British Formula 3 champion at Silverstone after winning what would be the penultimate race of the season.

Rain stopped play early in Northampton. After the disappointing MotoGP meeting at the track in August, it was unsurprising that the clerk of the course announced racing would not resume when the weather forced a red flag just two laps into the second race of the weekend.

Lundqvist’s first trophy of the weekend came in the wet qualifying session, where he took a double pole position ahead of Billy Monger and Tom Gamble. He took his tally up to four, earning the Jack Cavill Pole Position Cup, and a prize of £1000.

His title rival Nicolai Kjaergaard could only qualify fourth, but things went from bad to worse for the Carlin driver. He managed the first two thirds of the opening lap before falling off track at Farm and becoming stranded in the gravel.

With Kjaergaard out of the race, Lundqvist only needed to finish on the podium to take the title in the first race of the weekend. At the front of the field, the Swede pumped in fastest laps to build a gap to Gamble, who had snatched second off the line, and eventually finished three seconds ahead.

Lundqvist climbed onto the podium to secure an unsurpassable 85 point advantage over Kjaergaard.

As it would turn out, even if there were still 85 points available through the rest of the weekend, Kjaergaard wouldn’t get the chance to challenge for them.

With the rain getting heavier on Sunday, the second race of the weekend started under the safety car. The field spent two laps weaving about at low speed before the race was abandoned and the cars returned to the pits. Though points were still awarded – granting Joshua Mason his first “victory” of the season – Kjaergaard’s race one retirement meant he started from the back of the grid. Unable to make up any positions behind the safety car, he finished 17th.

The weather didn’t improve, and race three was cancelled, leaving Kjaergaard 85 points behind Lundqvist in the championship standings.

Manuel Maldonado passed Monger for third on the opening lap of race one, but the Carlin driver bounced back to reclaim the position the following lap. The pair continued to battle for the final podium position throughout the race. With just seven points separating the pair at the start of the weekend, every position counted. Monger managed to hold Maldonado off to take his fourth podium of the season and extend the gap to the Venuzualan to 10 points.

The pair finished in the opposite order in the second “race” but, with the pair running 14th and 15th, Maldonado could only close the gap by a single point.

Ayrton Simmons, competing in only his third F3 weekend, finished fifth in race one, ahead of Krish Mahadik, Josuf Owega and fellow F4 graduate Hampus Ericsson.

Jamie Chadwick and Sasakorn Chaimongkol completed the top 10.

With the whole field reversed for race two, and nobody able to pick up any positions behind the safety car, Mason took the victory, ahead of Ben Hurst, whose best finish before the weekend was a P8 at Snetterton. Arvin Esmaeili completed the podium.

Despite a dismal opening race, the lack of running on Sunday ensured that Kush Maini would hold on to third in the standings ahead of Mahadik and Gamble.