Ahmed Passes Sowery to Claim Opening Win of the 2017 Season

Carlin’s Enaam Ahmed claimed the opening win of the 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 season after sustained pressure on long-time leader Toby Sowery finally told as he swept inside the Lanan Racing man into Cascades three laps from home.

In a dramatic conclusion to the race, Sowery ran wide into the gravel as Ahmed took the lead, with team-mate James Pull following him through into second. Sowery recovered to round out the podium in third.

After Saturday’s race one was forced into a Monday rescheduling owing to barrier damage at the Cheshire track, the drivers returned on Bank Holiday set for a busy day of racing with all three encounters across the day. Reigning US Formula 4 Champion Cameron Das lined up on pole position in the wet conditions for race one but as the lights went out, the Carlin man was slow away, enabling his fellow front-row starter Sowery to take the lead into Old Hall.

Das’ team-mates Ahmed and Pull also moved ahead of the American along with Fortec Motorsports’ Ben Hingeley, relegating the 17-year-old to fifth. The rest of the field filtered through the first few corners without incident with Douglas Motorsport’s Callan O’Keeffe and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Tristan Charpentier the big movers as they jumped up to ninth and 11th positions respectively, from grid spots of 12th and 16th.

The top-three of Ahmed, Pull and Sowery began to break clear of the rest of the field as Das desperately tried to find a way past Hingeley in fourth. The Fortec man defended his position with panache though to frustrate the Carlin car’s ambitions of regaining ground that he had lost at the start. Further back, South African O’Keeffe’s forward progress continued as he moved into the top-eight before pulling off a lovely move into Old Hall to take seventh off of Chris Dittmann Racing’s Omar Ismail.

Back at the front, Ahmed had reduced Sowery’s lead to less than half-a-second and was right on the back of the Lanan Racing car’s gearbox as they started lap nine. The 17-year-old dived down the inside into Old Hall but Sowery saw the move coming and switched back down the inside on the run to Dentons. Ahmed held the inside line for the left at Cascades and as Sowery attempted to stay with him, he ran wide and into the gravel. Ahmed and Pull both went through but Sowery was able to skate through the kitty litter and rejoin the tarmac just ahead of the squabbling Hingeley and Das in fourth and fifth.

The field saw out the final laps without incident and it was Enaam Ahmed who started his year in the best possible fashion by claiming the maximum 35 points in the first race of the season. Pull and Sowery joined him on the podium with Hingeley and Das completing the top-five. Harry Hayek was sixth for Double R Racing ahead of the hard-charging O’Keeffe in seventh and Ismail in eighth, who will start the partially reversed-grid race two from pole. The top-10 was completed by Romanian Petru Florescu and Frenchman Tristan Charpentier.

Late race pressure paid dividends for Carlin’s Enaam Ahmed as he forced long-time leader Toby Sowery into a mistake at Cascades to give him victory in the opening race of the 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 season at Oulton Park. Sowery’s error saw him skate through the gravel and drop to third, with James Pull following his team-mate Ahmed through into second. After the race, we spoke to all three of the drivers to get their thoughts on the race and opinions as they look forward to race two of the day in Cheshire.

Winner: Enaam Ahmed, Carlin: “It’s a really, really nice feeling (to win). Carling gave me a really good car and I am really happy to win the first win of the season. It was a hard fight with Toby Sowery but I managed to pass him when he made a small mistake at turn two and went off. Our pace was really good and now we’ve got two more races to go today, which is going to be hard not only for me but the guys as well to keep on top of the cars. Let’s see how it goes!”

Runner-up: James Pull, Carlin: “It feels great (to finish second). We started fifth and managed to get a really good start off the line and capitalised on that to get up to third. I just had to hold on from there. Toby made a small mistake and we managed to capitalise on that too (to take second) so I am really happy and I’ve really got to thank the team. In the wet at Oulton Park it is difficult and anything can happen so I am going to give it my all, hopefully we can get another good start and see what happens from there.”

Third place: Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing: “I’m pretty disappointed to be honest. We were leading throughout the race but I made a mistake and I lost out because of that, letting both Enaam and James through. I’m pretty disappointed. I probably didn’t have the pace to hold him off as he was badgering me throughout the whole race and at the end I think he would have been able to get past. It is something we are going to work on for the next race. We shall see what we can do in race two. Last year we were really good in reverse-grid races so hopefully we can get another podium at least.”

 

Round 1 – Results

1st – No. 65, Enaam Ahmed, GBR, Carlin, 11 laps, 18:47.816

2nd – No. 15, James Pull, GBR, Carlin, Gap: 2.897

3rd – No. 51, Toby Sowery, GBR, Lanan Racing, Gap: 12.639

4th – No. 77, Ben Hingeley, GBR, Fortec Motorsports, Gap: 14.063

5th – No. 28, Cameron Das, USA, Carlin, Gap: 14.695

6th – No. 26, Harry Hayek, AUS, Double R Racing, Gap: 19.051

7th – No. 27, Callan O’Keefe, RSA, Douglas Motorsport, Gap: 19.979

8th – No. 4, Omar Ismail, GBR, Chris Dittmann Racing, Gap: 27.257

9th – No. 10, Petru Florescu, ROM, Douglas Motorsport, Gap: 29.251

10th – No. 6, Tristan Charpentier, FRA, Chris Dittmann Racing, Gap: 31.573

11th – No. 55, Jamie Chadwick, GBR, Double R Racing, Gap: 33.069

12th – No. 63, Nicolai Kjaergaard, DEN, Fortec Motorsports, Gap: 33.623

13th – No. 7, Guilherme Samaia, BRA, Double R Racing, Gap: 34.197

14th – No. 21, Chase Owen, USA, Hillspeed, Gap: 35.205

15th – No. 33, Manuel Maldonado, VEN, Fortec Motorsports, Gap: 36.540

16th – No. 25, Nick Worm, GER, Hillspeed, Gap: 48.546

17th – No. 8, Jeremy Wahome, KEN, Chris Dittmann Racing, Gap: 1:06.586

18th – No. 13, Aaron di Comberti, GBR, Lanan Racing, Gap: 1 lap^

 

^Car 13 – 10 second penalty for out of position start

 

Fastest Lap

No. 65, Enaam Ahmed, GBR, Carlin, Lap 4, 1:41.505, 95.47 mph, 153.65 kph