Castle Combe: Round 11 race summary

Watts makes history with Lola-Dome F3 victory

Danny Watts took a lights-to-flag victory for the Promatecme F3 Lola-Dome in round 11 of the Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship at Castle Combe this morning (June 20). The win is the first for a non-Dallara chassis in the series in over a decade.

Watts got a clean start and led Clivio Piccione and Adam Carroll at the end of the opening lap. The Lola soon had a lead of almost three seconds, setting a new lap record on lap four.

"I pushed hard for the first half of the race as I knew that it might be close," said Watts. "The last ten laps I just took it easy on the tyres and brought it home. The car was great and I had no problems. I need to get a better start to do it again this afternoon, but it is possible," he added.

Piccione managed to stay in touch with Watts, but was never in a position to challenge the leader. Carroll made a superb start from fifth on the grid and managed to hold Ernesto Viso at bay throughout the 20 laps.

Alvaro Parente had a lonely run to the flag in fifth place. Australian Will Power managed to stay ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr after the Brazilian moved up two places when Karun Chandhok stalled on the grid and Fairuz Fauzy dropped back down the field.

Ryan Lewis struggled to keep the lead of the Scholarship Class. A missed gear at the start meant that Stephen Jelley got past. However, Jelley had to pit at the end of the opening lap with a throttle problem. Vasilije Calasan inherited second place as Jelly pitted and almost took the lead when Lewis spun with a handful of laps to go.

"I selected the wrong gear and Stephen just sailed past me," said Lewis. "It would have made it a lot harder if he had been able to stay out," he added.

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