Aussie ace Scott Pye edged closer to retaking the lead of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain  (Saturday) at Brands Hatch, the Mygale pilot leading home his team-mates Emil Bernstorff and Josh Hill for a Jamun Racing 1-2-3 at the squad’s home track, and then collecting a second-place finish, behind Hill, in the second race of the day.

Pye’s 10th race victory of the season moves him officially to within eight points of championship leader Scott Malvern’s tally, and unofficially - with ‘drop scores’ taken into account - the Australian driver is 20 points in front of his English title rival.

The title fight is closing up in the Scholarship class also, following twin class wins for Juno driver Luke Williams after a race one crash put a premature end to Tristan Mingay’s weekend.

There’s more Formula Ford action to come tomorrow afternoon at Brands Hatch with round 20 of the championship.

Round 18Jamun’s 1-2-3 formation finish came in an incident strewn 18th round, with Pye leading from pole position to chequered flag to rack up his 10th win of the season ahead of Danish driver Bernstorff and Hill.

Pye was inch-perfect throughout, heading off race-long challenges from Bernstorff and surviving a lengthy safety car period caused by a spin into the Druids Hill Bend gravel trap by Zaamin Jaffer. Alas the sizeable Brands Hatch crowd - drawn not only by Formula Ford but also by the German touring car and Euro F3 races - was denied a race to the chequered flag by a further safety car period after a nasty 15th-lap crash involving the cars of Scholarship class leader Mingay and Dutch guest driver Pieter Schothorst.

The accident came moments after Guest driver Tom Bradshaw’s Juno was tapped into a spin on the approach to Paddock Hill Bend. Behind, there was heavy contact between Mingay’s Ray and the pursuing Geva Racing Mygale of Schothorst, Mingay’s car spinning into the pit wall as a consequence. Tristan suffered a slight knee injury in the impact and the delay in retrieving the wreckage meant the final four laps were completed under controlled conditions. Schothorst was later excluded from the meeting by race officials.

Pye was thrilled with his win, if not the manner in which it came: “It’s never great to win a race under the safety car, but it’s motor racing and it happens. Whatever, it was my 10th win and a Jamun 1-2-3 and it doesn’t get much better than that. My plan is to keep banging in the wins just like that.”

Finnish driver Antti Buri started third on the grid and slotted into third behind Pye and Bernstorff at the start, with Hill crawling all over the rear of his car in a bid to lift the final podium slot. Josh got his chance at the restart on lap 11, getting a better exit from Clark Curve to overhaul the Finn across the start/finish line. As well as his podium, Hill also broke the three-year-old Brands Indy lap record.

Buri held off championship leader Scott Malvern to secure fourth, Dempsey Racing Ray driver Malvern blaming a lack of grip for his under-par performance. JTR Mygale drivers Dan Cammish and Tio Ellinas took sixth and seventh, Cypriot Ellinas battling through from 11th on the grid. Dan de Zille’s Minister Mygale claimed eighth after James Tucker was penalised by half a second for overtaking under yellow flags, relegating him to ninth. Jake Cook’s Getem-prepared Mygale completed the top 10.

With Mingay’s enforced absence from the finishing order, the sole Scholarship class finisher was Luke Williams.

Round 19Pye once again made an excellent getaway from the pole to lead, but Hill, from fourth on the grid, made an even better one to charge on to his team-mate’s tail on the approach to Paddock Hill Bend. Buri came back at Hill through Paddock, however, to push the Jamun man back to third.

But Hill had no intention of settling for third and fought past the Finn through Paddock on lap three to take the fight to leader Pye. A lap later Josh dove down Scott’s inside into the Druids hairpin to assume control of the race. Hill, Pye, Buri and Bernstorff moved clear of the pack, which was being held back by fifth-placed Malvern’s recalcitrant Ray, and settled in to a four-way battle for victory. Though challenges came from each driver on every lap, no-one was able to break the status quo and that was how they finished.

Delighted by his third win of the season, Hill said: “I had to make a good start and try to get in front as early as possible. Once I was there, I knew that if I set a good, fast, consistent pace that Scott would find it really hard to pass me.”

Pye made a lunge at the line, closing to within seven-hundredths of Hill’s car, with Buri a further 1.2s back and Bernstorff - who shattered Hill’s hours-old lap record - right on his tail.

Malvern simply could not live with the pace of the frontrunners but made his Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray impossible for his pursuers to pass. Cammish tried and failed, then Dan de Zille, but Malvern proved immovable and duly secured fifth place, with sixth going to de Zille after he repulsed a late attack from James Tucker’s JTR car. Tucker spun out at Clearways two laps from the end to gift seventh to his team-mate, Tio Ellinas.

Bradshaw gave the Century Motorsport Juno its best outing for many races to secure eighth, ahead of Cammish, Jeroen Slaghekke, Jake Cook, the lonely Scholarship class runner Williams and Raysport’s Cormac O’Neill, whose first race had ended on the grid with a broken driveshaft.

Provisional resultsDunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great BritainRound 18 (of 25) Brands Hatch 4/9/201018 laps /  21.60 milesPos  Driver  Nat/Home  Team/Chassis  Time1  Scott Pye  AUS/Mount Gambier  Jamun/Mygale  17m 41.569s / 73.16 mph2  Emil Bernstorff  DEN/Cascais  Jamun/Mygale  +0.125s3  Josh Hill  GBR/Farnham  Jamun/Mygale  +0.141s4  Antti Buri  FIN/Masku  Enigma/Mygale  +0.283s5  Scott Malvern  GBR/Ilford  Dempsey/Ray  +1.196s6  Dan Cammish  GBR/Churwell  JTR/Mygale  +1.653sScholarship class: Luke Williams GBR/Sowerby Luke Williams/Juno +6.525sFastest lap: Hill  0m 46.696s / 92.41 mph Record

Round 1923 laps /  27.60 milesPos  Driver  Nat/Home  Team/Chassis  Time1  Josh Hill  GBR/Farnham  Jamun/Mygale  18m 12.095s / 90.87mph2  Scott Pye  AUS/Mount Gambier  Jamun/Mygale  +0.070s3  Antti Buri  FIN/Masku  Enigma/Mygale  +1.355s4  Emil Bernstorff  DEN/Cascais  Jamun/Mygale  +1.490s5  Scott Malvern  GBR/Ilford  Dempsey/Ray  +8.677s6  Dan de Zille  JEY/St John  Minister/Mygale  +9.584sFastest lap: Bernstorff  0m 46.348s / 93.10mph Record

Provisional championship placings1 Malvern 457 points; 2 Pye 449; 3 Cammish 361; 4 Buri 346; 5 Tio Ellinas (CYP/JTR Mygale) 332; 6 Hill 324; 7 Bernstorff 251; 8 Jake Cook (GBR/Getem Mygale) 241; 9 de Zille 193; 10 James Tucker (GBR/JTR Mygale) 190 etcScholarship class1 Tristan Mingay (GBR/Raysport Ray) 376; 2 Williams 360 etc

Next round: Brands Hatch Indy 5 September