Bruno Senna took the chequered flag for the second time with another lights to flag win after getting the jump on pole position holder Mike Conway into Old Hall Bend. Carlin Motorsport had another podium to celebrate with Christian Bakkerud holding off a race long challenge from Conway. T-Sport's Rodolfo Gonzalez added a second winner's trophy to his collection in the National Class, finishing 8th overall, five places higher than nearest rival, Cristiano Morgado, and smashing the two year old lap record for the British F3 National Class at Outlon Park.
21 cars made the grid for the start of race 2 with Hitech's James Walker missing after his accident in the opening race. At the green light pole sitter Mike Conway got a poor start allowing Bruno Senna to take the lead, with 3rd placed Christian Bakkerud taking advantage of the situation to move into second. On the exit of Old Hall a scramble ensued with Stephen Jelley and Yelmer Buurman being the main losers, ending the opening lap in 19th and 13th respectively. By then Senna had a 1.6 second lead over Bakkerud, Conway, Jarvis and Engel. Rodolfo Gonzalez was leading the National Class by a country mile after making up 6 places on lap one, seven places higher than his nearest rival Cristiano Morgado.
On lap 2 Bakerrud was forced to defend his 2nd place from Conway, allowing the flying Senna to extend his lead to 2.4 seconds. Lap 3 saw Conway get alongside the Carlin Motorsport Dallara at Knickerbrook but Bakkerud held his nerve and his position. Dennis Retera did a bit of grass tracking at Cascades, regaining the track quickly but losing 2 places in the process.
On the next lap Conway attacked again but Bakkerud was defending well and Conway couldn't find a way without risking losing his front wing and the much needed championship points.
The race settled down with Senna extending his lead by 0.4 seconds per lap because of the battling duo behind. Oliver Jarvis also used the 2nd and 3rd placed drivers' distraction to close up and threaten Conway for 3rd, which took some of the pressure off of Bakkerud.
On lap 8 Keiko Ihara was being lapped by the leaders and Conway saw an opportunity to have a stab at Bakerrud. With blue flags flying Ihara moved over, but Conway saw his chance and dived down the inside at Knickerbrook but Bakkerud was determined to hold on and Conway had to yield and the status quo was restored.
For the next 4 laps Bakerrud, Conway and Jarvis were nose to tail as Senna disappeared into the distance. On lap 11 James Jakes ran into the back of Jonathan Kennard at Knickerbrook, launching the Hitech Dallara Mercedes into the air but coming down on its wheels. Jakes was out and Kennard limped back to the pits and into retirement.
Salvador Duran, running in 6th place, overshot the apex at Lodge and ran on into the gravel trap. He managed to keep going and regained the track but had lost 12 places in the process.
On lap 16 Senna set the fastest lap of the race with a 1m30.941to secure the extra championship point and a lap later he took the chequered flag to secure his second win of the day. Behind him Conway tried a last gasp attempt to take second place from Bakkerud but it wasn't to be be with the Dane holding on to secure the 15 championship points for 2nd place.
Rodolfo Gonzalez took his second win of the day in the National Class. With 6 championship cars finishing behind him, the 19-year-old Venezuelan has certainly made the rest of the grid take notice of his speed in the two year old Dallara by breaking the two year old F3 National lap record with a time of 1m31.891s, 0.315 seconds faster than the record set by Stephen Jelley in 2004 .
Bruno Senna: "Well I wasn't expecting that but in the end I got a good start and from then on I pushed really quite hard. We were a bit on the edge but the intention was to pull a big lead and then if something was to happen I had enough space to get to the end, it was a good race. It wasn't easy, the race seemed a bit longer than it is because you want it to finish but I'm just delighted."
Christian Bakkerud: "I definately got a good start and it made the difference in the race. I got Conway behind me at the beginning, couldn't quite get Bruno who was just too quick. Conway was just giving pressure the whole way through the race, the Mercedes isreally strong out the chicane and up the hill, they have really got a lot of grunt. Everywhere else we're pretty even I would say so I was just happy to keep him behind me. I've absolutely got no complaints about the Honda (engine), It's going to be touch and go this year, the Honda is going to be quicker on some tracks where we have the longer straightsand Mercedes is probably going to be a bit quicker where we have small tight corners and up and down hills. I'm not worried."
Mike Conway: “I had a bad start. The car was very good all the way through, but I just couldn’t get by Bakkerud - I put lots of pressure on him but he didn’t make any mistakes.”
Rodolfo Gonzalez: "It was a fantastic race but it was really hard, the win was great but I was pushing to get the lap record, which I did at the end and that has made my day. Two pole positions, two fastest laps, two wins I couldn't ask for a better start to the season."
