The BRDC British Formula 3 Championship partnered by Duo heads to Snetterton this weekend (6/7 August) for the penultimate round of the 2016 season, with just 33 points separating the top four drivers in a titanic title battle.
After an enthralling first six rounds of the year, Carlin’s British driver Ricky Collard heads the overall standings but has seen his advantage whittled away over the last two meetings, only managing to take to the podium once over the past five races. Brazilian Matheus Leist has reduced the arrears to just four points after securing a pair of runner-up finishes at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, and will now be aiming to seize the championship lead over the course of the three 16-lap encounters in Norfolk.
Australian Thomas Randle is only 19 points adrift of first placed man Collard, with the Douglas Motorsport man taking a storming victory in race two of the meeting at Spa, having started ninth, to ensure his title bid stayed alive. Fourth placed driver Toby Sowery, a finalist for the 2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, has slightly more ground to make up but the Lanan Racing man is a three-time BRDC British F3 race-winner already this year so cannot be discounted.
Further back, 16-year-old Enaam Ahmed is looking to continue his fine season and will be encouraged by the championship’s return to Snetterton, where he took three podiums including a race win at the opening round of the year back in March. Fortec Motorsports’ Tarun Reddy and Double R Racing’s Enzo Bortoleto have displayed strong pace and will be looking to add to their podium results from earlier in the season, whilst young Australian Thomas Maxwell is targeting his first top-three BRDC British F3 finish for Sean Walkinshaw Racing.
Finnish racer Aleksanteri Huovinen completes the top-10 at present but will pushed by the HHC Motorsport duo of Sisa Ngebulana and Ben Hingeley, plus Omani driver Al Faisal Al Zubair, with the trio having desires on moving up the championship order.
The BRDC British Formula 3 Championship action gets underway at Snetterton with testing on both Thursday and Friday (4/5 August), before qualifying begins Saturday’s action at11:10, with race one following at 14:55. The partially-reverse grid race two begins at 10:20on Sunday morning with the third and final race of the weekend getting underway at 14:40.
As always, you can watch all of the action from Snetterton through the one-hour long highlights programme which is broadcast on ITV4 one week after the meeting, and you can follow live timing and updates through the official BRDC British Formula 3 website.
2016 BRDC British Formula 3 Standings after race 18 of 24
1. Ricky Collard, Carlin, 354 points
2. Matheus Leist, Double R Racing, 350 points
3. Thomas Randle, Douglas Motorsport, 335 points
4. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, 321 points
5. Enaam Ahmed, Douglas Motorsport, 263 points
6. Lando Norris, Carlin, 247 points
7. Tarun Reddy, Fortec Motorsports, 197 points
8. Enzo Bortoleto, Double R Racing, 190 points
=. Thomas Maxwell, Sean Walkinshaw Racing, 190 points
10. Aleksanteri Huovinen, Double R Racing, 188 points
Click here for full championship standings.
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