- Swede seals 11th and 12th podiums of the year
- Championship lead maintained on important weekend in title race
Linus Lundqvist added another two podiums to his 2018 tally at this weekend’s BRDC British F3 Championship round at Brands Hatch, edging one step closer to his dream of winning the prestigious single-seater title.
After sealing an emphatic double win last time out at Spa, Lundqvist proved on form once again as the field returned home to Britain, topping both days of pre-event testing at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit on Thursday and Friday and then leading the way in free practice a day later as the pack moved across to the full-length Grand Prix loop.
A strategic blunder in qualifying, however, meant Lundqvist completed fewer laps than his rivals and slipped to fourth – albeit just one tenth off pole position – on the grid for the opening race of the meeting.
Once there, the Double R Racing Swede bounced back with a rocket start to immediately shoot into second place, crucially passing main title rival Nicolai Kjaergaard into the first corner. Lundqvist held on to finish the race in the same position, splitting a quartet of Carlin cars which occupied the remaining places in the top five.
After going on to take 11th in the reverse-grid Race 2, swamped at a track notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities, Lundqvist then capped off the weekend with another podium for third in Race 3.
“Another good weekend where we did the job we knew we had to do,” says Linus Lundqvist. “Being on the podium twice is decent enough, of course, especially at this stage of the championship when we’ve got quite a good lead overall – but as a racer I can’t help but being slightly disappointed. This is the first time this season when I haven’t won at least one race in a weekend, so that’s a bit sad, but at the same time I think it says quite a lot about our level this year.”
Lundqvist, who retains a 111-point lead over Kjaergaard (who won the final race at Brands Hatch) in the standings with just two rounds to go, has now graced the podium 12 times in 18 races so far in 2018.
“I think we had the pace to win at least one race this weekend, but we didn’t make the most of qualifying and it’s hard to overtake around here,” Lundqvist concludes. “Regardless of that, we’ve done the job this weekend and in terms of the championship, we’ve now got a very good chance. Exciting times!”
The penultimate round of the British F3 season takes place at Donington Park on September 22-23. Linus Lundqvist could seal the title prematurely on that weekend, ahead of the subsequent finale at Silverstone.
RESULTS (top five)
BRDC British F3 Championship
Round 6 | Brands Hatch
Race 1
1: Jamie Caroline, Carlin, 14 laps
2: Linus Lundqvist, Double R, +2.958s
3: Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, +3.529s
4: Billy Monger, Carlin, +9.473s
5: Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +9.847s
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Race 2 (reversed grid)
1: Jamie Chadwick, Douglas, 13 laps
2: Krish Mahadik, Double R, +0.439s
3: Kush Maini, Lanan, +0.727s
4: Sasa Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +4.001s
5: Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas, +7.828s
—
11: Linus Lundqvist, Double R, +10.227s
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Race 3
1: Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, 14 laps
2: Jamie Caroline, Carlin, +0.414s
3: Linus Lundqvist, Double R, +2.088s
4: Tom Gamble, Fortec, +5.600s
5: Billy Monger, Carlin, +6.195s
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CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (top five)
BRDC British F3 Championship
After 18/24 races
1: Linus Lundqvist, 473 p.
2: Nicolai Kjaergaard, 362 p.
3: Kush Maini, 321 p.
4: Tom Gamble, 302 p.
5: Krish Mahadik, 261 p.
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