Ahmed the Hat-Trick Hero with Lights-to-Flag Race Three Victory
Enaam Ahmed ensured he started his 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 campaign in the best possible fashion as he claimed a clean sweep of race victories at Oulton Park with a lights-to-flag win in the third and final encounter of the weekend. Reigning US Formula 4 Champion Cameron Das hassled and harried Ahmed for the majority of the race but ultimately couldn’t close enough to attempt an overtake, whilst their Carlin team-mate completed the final podium of the meeting in third.
After storming through the field and navigating around the carnage in race two to take victory, Ahmed lined up on pole position courtesy of setting the fastest lap across the first two races. He had Das alongside on the front-row and as the lights went out, it was the American who made the better getaway. However, Ahmed was able to cover him off and he led the field into Old Hall Corner.
Further back, Danish racer Nicolai Kjaergaard was slow away in third and he dropped down to seventh. Chris Dittmann Racing’s Omar Ismail took the position whilst the Double R Racing duo of Brazilian Guilherme Samaia and Brit Jamie Chadwick came to grief at Island Bend, ending both their races.
On the next tour, Ismail lost out to both Pull and Douglas Motorsport’s Callan O’Keeffe relegating him to fifth, whilst up front Das was maintaining the pressure on Ahmed. Halfway through the race, Das managed to reduce the gap to the leader down to just over half-a-second whilst Toby Sowery continued his recovery from a race two DNF and a 13th place grid position to take seventh off of Kjaergaard.
As the battle for the win began to hot up, Ahmed put in a number of fastest laps to extend the gap to Das to over 1.3s and regain control of the contest. The 17-year-old was able to see out the final few laps without any trouble to seal a historic treble on ‘Super Monday’ at Oulton Park.
Das claimed second with Pull third, O’Keeffe fourth and Ismail fifth. Ben Hingeley claimed sixth with Sowery seventh and Kjaergaard eighth. The top-10 was completed by Lanan Racing’s Aaron di Comberti and Double R Racing’s Harry Hayek.
Ahmed leads the overall standings by 24 points from James Pull, with Cameron Das eight points further behind in third. The next round of the 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship takes place at Rockingham on 29/30 April.
Enaam Ahmed, Carlin: “It feels pretty special. I can’t really believe it! I’m lost for words. I didn’t think it was really possible to win three races in a weekend but it is a really good way to start the season. I can’t thank the guys at Carlin enough, Mark, Luke, Matt, Trev, Sam. It has been awesome, they’ve given me an amazing car and they haven’t put a foot wrong. I didn’t quite deliver in qualifying with third but to come back with the wins has been amazing!”
Cameron Das, Carlin: “It was a really good race. I had the possibility of making a move on Enaam for the win at one point after he made a couple of mistakes but then I made a mistake of my own right after that so I wasn’t able to bring the fight to him. I’m really happy with it though, my pace was good and my start was good too so it was really encouraging for the next round. I didn’t really know how I was going to do at the first weekend but I think this is where I realistically expected to do. For the next round at Rockingham though, I’ve learned a lot this weekend and I think for the second round I will be right at the top.”
James Pull, Carlin: “I couldn’t quite find the pace. I got into a consistent rhythm but couldn’t quite find the pace to catch the guys in front. I tried really hard though. I had to defend from Callan O’Keeffe who was quite near to me and whilst I was defending, I lost a bit of time there. They seemed to move on up the road and I knew then that I couldn’t catch up, so I just went through the final laps making sure that I kept Callan behind.”
Round 3 – Grid
1st – No. 65, Enaam Ahmed, GBR, Carlin
2nd – No. 28, Cameron Das, USA, Carlin
3rd – No. 63, Nicolai Kjaergaard, DEN, Fortec Motorsports
4th – No. 4, Omar Ismail, GBR, Chris Dittmann Racing
5th – No. 15, James Pull, GBR, Carlin
6th – No. 27, Callan O’Keeffe, RSA, Douglas Motorsport
7th – No. 77, Ben Hingeley, GBR, Fortec Motorsports
8th – No. 25, Nick Worm, GER, Hillspeed
9th – No. 21, Chase Owen, USA, Hillspeed
10th – No. 33, Manuel Maldonado, VEN, Fortec Motorsports
11th – No. 13, Aaron di Comberti, GBR, Lanan Racing
12th – No. 7, Guilherme Samaia, BRA, Double R Racing
13th – No. 51, Toby Sowery, GBR, Lanan Racing
14th – No. 26, Harry Hayek, AUS, Double R Racing
15th – No. 8, Jeremy Wahome, KEN, Chris Dittmann Racing
16th – No. 10, Petru Florescu, ROM, Douglas Motorsport
17th – No. 55, Jamie Chadwick, GBR, Double R Racing
Round 3 – Results
1st – No. 65, Enaam Ahmed, GBR, Carlin, 14 laps, 21:20.292
2nd – No. 28, Cameron Das, USA, Carlin, Gap: 1.833
3rd – No. 15, James Pull, GBR, Carlin, Gap: 8.704
4th – No. 27, Callan O’Keefe, RSA, Douglas Motorsport, Gap: 12.993
5th – No. 4, Omar Ismail, GBR, Chris Dittmann Racing, Gap: 16.011
6th – No. 77, Ben Hingeley, GBR, Fortec Motorsports, Gap: 16.492
7th – No. 51, Toby Sowery, GBR, Lanan Racing, Gap: 17.233
8th – No. 63, Nicolai Kjaergaard, DEN, Fortec Motorsports, Gap: 19.689
9th – No. 13, Aaron di Comberti, GBR, Lanan Racing, Gap: 26.777
10th – No. 26, Harry Hayek, AUS, Double R Racing, Gap: 27.821
11th – No. 10, Petru Florescu, ROM, Douglas Motorsport, Gap: 28.717
12th – No. 25, Nick Worm, GER, Hillspeed, Gap: 52.391
13th – No. 21, Chase Owen, USA, Hillspeed, Gap: 1:01.152
14th – No. 8, Jeremy Wahome, KEN, Chris Dittmann Racing, Gap: 1:12.219
15th – No. 33, Manuel Maldonado, VEN, Fortec Motorsports, Gap: 1 lap
Did Not Finish
No. 7, Guilherme Samaia, BRA, Double R Racing, Lap 0
No. 55, Jamie Chadwick, GBR, Double R Racing, Lap 0
Did Not Start
No. 6, Tristan Charpentier, FRA, Chris Dittmann Racing, Gap: 24.252
Fastest Lap
No. 65, Enaam Ahmed, GBR, Carlin, Lap 9, 1:30.687, 105.86 mph, 171.98 kph
The next round of the 2017 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship takes place at Rockingham on 29/30 May.
Smtfhw's Travels 