Douglas Motorsport’s Randle closes in on BF3 Series Lead
Rounds 14 & 15 of the 2016 BRDC British F3 Championship took place at Silverstone last weekend, the series once again running alongside the British GT Championship.
Thomas Randle topped the timesheets with a last lap effort in qualifying assuring himself of the all important pole position for race one.. Team mate Enaam Ahmed was seventh, just .05 off fourth place in a typically close fought session.
When the lights went out for race one, Randle made no mistakes to lead the pack away and looked to be heading for another British F3 win. Unfortunately, the race was stopped and on the restart he was beaten away by Matheus Leist, dropping to third early on but crossing the line in second. Team mate Ahmed drove well, finishing fifth having battled with a train of cars for the duration.
In an action packed race two, in wet conditions, Randle took another portion of championship points for fourth place with Ahmed right behind in fifth. The race finished under safety car when Quinlan Lall parked in the gravel on the exit of Luffield having made contact with another car.
The third race of the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship partnered by Duo weekend at Silverstone was abandoned before any racing action took place due to heavy rain and thunderstorms in Northamptonshire.
Only minutes prior to the field taking to the circuit for the final encounter of the meeting, a large storm passed through the circuit, soaking the track and leaving pools of standing water all across the 3.6-mile layout. The safety car inspected the track but, as conditions continued to worsen, the entire race meeting was abandoned at 17:00.
Thomas Randle: “‘It was another great weekend in the Douglas F3 car. Grabbing my first pole position around the Silverstone GP circuit was a massive positive for me and to come away with a second place finish and halving the gap to the points leader after only two races was great. Really looking forward to the next round at Spa.”
Wayne Douglas, Team Principal, Douglas Motorsport: “I am delighted that Thomas has now substantially reduced the gap to the series leader on what what was a difficult weekend for all drivers- and it was great to see him qualify on pole for the first time too. Enaam was not too far away and has climbed to a solid fifth in the standings too and we are all looking forward to Spa next month.”
