Logan Sargeant dominated the opening race of the second Silverstone weekend to take a maiden F3 victory and the championship lead.
Sargeant made a clean start from pole position to comfortably hold the lead throughout this race en route to his first win in F3, ahead of Great Britain’s Jake Hughes who held second place after passing Liam Lawson on entry to The Loop on the opening lap.
Sargeant consequently took the championship lead by six points after Oscar Piastri overcame pre-race engine issues to only finish seventh.
Speaking post race on his victory, Sargeant said; “I am extremely happy. It’s my first win in F3, and I am glad that it came in a Race 1.
“A big thank you to Prema, they have done a fantastic job all weekend so far and now we are going to focus on tomorrow and try and make up some positions”
Lawson rounded off the podium after fending off Sargeant’s Prema teammate, Frederik Vesti for majority of the race as the Dane received a warning for unnecessary weaving on Hangar Straight when battling Theo Pourchaire.
David Beckmann, Pourchaire, Piastri, Bent Viscaal, Clement Novalak and Lirim Zendeli rounded out the top ten, with Zendeli initially clinching reverse grid pole for Race Two.
Novalak’s fellow Carlin and British teammate, Ben Barnicoat finished just outside of the points in 11th until a post race penalty elevated him to tenth as Novalak slipped to 13th, whilst Hitech GP’s Max Fewtrell and Olli Caldwell of Trident could only manage 16th and 21st placed finishes respectively.
A clean start saw everyone get away well with Sargeant quickly building a lead of one second as Hughes fought Lawson throughout the opening four corners, ultimately finding the inside line to snatch second at The Loop.
Jack Doohan who had enjoyed a strong start from his best grid position of seventh damaged his front wing at the start of the second lap, thus ruling him out of contention for points as he tumbled down the order.
Vesti and Pourchaire meanwhile battled hard in the early stages with the latter enjoying two unsuccessful attempts to pass the Dane into Luffield then Stowe for fourth on lap three.
Pourchaire eventually paid the price for failing to find his way past Vesti when he tried the switchback through Stowe, only to drift wide through Vale and lose fifth position to Beckmann through Club corner.
Further down the field, Jenzer duo of Calan Williams and Frederico Malvestiti collided at Stowe on lap four to put both drivers out of the race.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe race then settled down until lap 15 when Pourchaire locked up into Brooklands and Viscaal dived down the inside to take sixth, although the Frenchman would reclaim his position three laps later.
Pourchaire made a late move on Viscaal into Stowe but drifted wide at Vale to open up a gap for Viscaal into Club, who ultimately found himself squeezed wide onto the kerb as Pourchaire clinched sixth ahead of Piastri who demoted the Dutchman to eighth.
Lawson and Vesti meanwhile had caught up to Hughes in the last few laps but Sebastian Fernandez collided with Matteo Nannini on entry to Stowe, sending the Italian spinning into the gravel and yellow flags deployed to prevent any overtaking.
Sargeant therefore won from Hughes and Lawson as Vesti had to settle for fourth due to yellow flags preventing a final lap move into Stowe, with Beckmann, Pourchaire, Piastri and Viscaal completing the top eight.
Novalak produced a strong drive to ninth and will start tomorrow’s reverse grid race from second, behind Zendeli who finished tenth to clinch pole for Race Two, as Ben Barnicoat missed out on his first F3 points by 0.537s.
Barnicoat however picked up reverse grid pole following a post race penalty for Novalak following an illegal pass on Zendeli.
Race Result
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Logan Sargeant | Prema | 20 | 36m 14.262 |
| 2 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | 20 | + 1.552 |
| 3 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 20 | + 2.025 |
| 4 | Frederik Vesti | Prema | 20 | + 2.339 |
| 5 | David Beckmann | Trident | 20 | + 4.870 |
| 6 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | 20 | + 9.370 |
| 7 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | 20 | + 10.087 |
| 8 | Bent Viscaal | MP Motorsport | 20 | + 10.705 |
| 9 | Lirim Zendeli | Trident | 20 | + 11.535 |
| 10 | Ben Barnicoat | Carlin | 20 | + 12.072 |
| 11 | Cameron Das | Carlin | 20 | + 14.284 |
| 12 | Clement Novalak | Carlin | 20 | + 16.082 |
| 13 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | 20 | + 17.215 |
| 14 | Alex Peroni | Campos | 20 | + 17.715 |
| 15 | David Schumacher | Charouz | 20 | + 20.475 |
| 16 | Max Fewtrell | Hitech GP | 20 | + 21.368 |
| 17 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HWA Racelab | 20 | + 22.278 |
| 18 | Igor Fraga | Charouz | 20 | + 22.971 |
| 19 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 20 | + 23.441 |
| 20 | Sophia Floersch | Campos | 20 | + 24.078 |
| 21 | Olli Caldwell | Trident | 20 | + 24.369 |
| 22 | Roman Stanek | Charouz | 20 | + 25.014 |
| 23 | Lukas Dunner | MP Motorsport | 20 | + 31.254 |
| 24 | Sebastian Fernandez | ART GP | 20 | + 33.229 |
| 25 | Alessio Deledda | Campos | 20 | + 39.766 |
| 26 | Jack Doohan | HWA Racelab | 20 | + 1m 32.538 |
| 27 | Matteo Nannini | Jenzer | 18 | Collision |
| 28 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 3 | Collision |
| 29 | Frederico Malvestiti | Jenzer | 3 | Collision |
| 30 | Dennis Hauger | Hitech GP | 2 | Technical |
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