British F3: Novalak Takes First Blood at Oulton

The BRDC British F3 Championship returned for its inaugural race of the season, with Clement Novalak taking honours in the scorching Cheshire sunshine.

Despite an early safety car, Novalak shrugged off his demons from 2018 to take an early lead in the championship and his first single-seater win in the UK.

A return to form for Carlin ensured that Novalak took the win at Oulton Park, though it was unfortunate for his teammates, especially polesitter Kaylen Frederick who damaged his car. Ayrton Simmons ensured it would not be an easy win for the 18 year old, but was forced to settle for second as Johnathan Hoggard took third.

In Qualifying, it was Clement Novalak setting the early pace with teammate Kaylen Frederick soon getting the better of him. The Carlin duo continued to battle it out as the laps soon dropped away later in the session. Ayrton Simmons remained competitive, but could not best the duo, with Johnathan Hoggard behind and Ulysse de Pauw in fifth on debut.

As the lights went out; Novalak jumped away from Frederick, having a significantly better opening lap than 2018, in which he’d crashed at Hislops after losing pole. This year it was the other way round with the Brit storming away.

Meanwhile, action wasn’t far away as Lucas Pettersson, Benjamin Pedersen and Pavan Ravishankar were the innocent victims of a lap two incident at Brittens chicane, that brought out a safety car.

Kiern Jewiss, during a midfield battle, hit Manuel Maldonado on the approach to the corner, pitching him across the track and taking out the Double R and Carlin drivers. Maldonado would lose his front wing, though the Venezuelan continued, eventually picking up a top ten.

The restart did not benefit Frederick. After being overtaken by Simmons, the American dropped back, losing momentum as he was swamped by the field before pitting with damage. It soon got worse for the American’s, as Verhagen lost his front wing, scuppering a promising top five place.

Simmons caught the leading Frederick with four laps to go, but it was too little too late for the British F4 runner up.

Fourth would Ulysse de Pauw in his first race in the UK. The Belgian had joined the series late, but has been busy testing the last few weeks for Douglas Motorsport. Sasakorn Chaimongkol kept out of trouble to take fifth ahead of Fortec Motorsport’s Hampus Ericsson.

Kiern Jewiss had finished sixth, but his post-race penalty for the accident dropped him 10 seconds, meaning he finishes ninth. Nazim Azman and Manuel Maldonado are promoted to seventh and eighth respectively, as Josh Mason completed the top ten.

A change to the rules for 2019 means that instead of the fastest lap determining the grid for race three, the second fastest times will now determine pole. This meant that Simmons will lead Hoggard, Novalak, Frederick and Jewiss for the final event of the weekend.