Donington Park: Round 13 summary

Carroll Takes Lights to Flag Victory

Adam Carroll took a hard-earned lights-to-flag victory in round thirteen of the Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship at Donington Park this afternoon. Nelson Piquet Jr finished second after a battle with Lola-Dome driver Danny Watts ended in collision.

Carroll got a good start from pole-position and managed to pull out a strong lead after Lucas Di Grassi and Will Power made contact from the line, putting both of them out of the race. Marko Asmer's gamble to start the race on slicks was short-lived as he got onto the inside of Redgate and hit standing water, sending him into the gravel and retirement.

Danilo Dirani had managed to move into second place from the start, but Watts was charging hard and moved past the Brazilian on lap six. A series of quick laps meant that he was closing in on Carroll, who was struggling for grip around the entire lap of the circuit.

Piquet made his move at the same time, taking James Rossiter at Redgate before beginning to claw time back to Watts. The Brazilian set the fastest lap and spun in his pursuit of the Promatecme F3 run Lola-Dome, with the battle coming down to the final lap.

Piquet had a look up the inside of Watts as they went down to the Melbourne Hairpin but thought better of it. A last corner move was his only chance of taking second place points and he went up the inside as Watts braked. However, the move was made a little too late and Piquet lost control, spearing him into Watts, eliminating the Lola on the spot.

Nelson managed to find a gear and limped across the line, taking second place from Clivio Piccione, who would have taken a lonely fourth place after Rossiter spun at Goddards while trying to find a way past him.

"That was so tough," said Carroll. "I did the right thing at the start by keeping out of the way and just kept my head down over the first lap. But, I had no grip at all and I was pretty much flat out for the entire race. I could not respond to Nelson and Danny behind me as I just had no grip. I'm really happy with the result though," he added.

Rossiter inherited fourth place after Watts' was sidelined while a storming drive from Karun Chandhok gave him fifth place just ahead of a struggling Dirani.

Results for the race will remain provisional until tomorrow when the Piquet/Watts incident will be investigated by the Clerk of the Course.

Ryan Lewis drove possibly his best race of the season so far to take victory in the Scholarship Class. He passed Stephen Jelley up the inside at Redgate on lap one and set about keeping up with the Championship Class cars ahead of him.

A four car battle with Chandhok, Fauzy and Marshall kept him in sight of the faster cars in front in the wet conditions.

"I had the inside line on Stephen at the start and went for it," said Ryan. "The car was really good and I just kept my head down and pushed hard to stay with the Championship boys in front. It was great being up there with them and I hope it wet tomorrow so we can do it again," he added.

Jelley found more pace as the race went on and closed the gap to Lewis in the closing stages, but he was too far ahead to be caught. Series returnee Ronayne O'Mahony took third place ahead of Frenchman Vasilije Calasan.

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