Brazil’s Lucas Foresti pulled off a remarkable victory Saturday afternoon at Brands Hatch, snatching the honours in a weather-afflicted 10th round of the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series despite racing on the ‘wrong’ tyres.Like the rest of the field, Fortec man Foresti started on wet-weather Coopers, but unlike the majority he opted to stay on track rather than pit for slicks as the track dried around mid-distance. In a virtuoso display of tyre management, the 19-year-old from Brasilia kept his head and his car on track as the slick-shod runners, headed by championship leader Felipe Nasr, bore down on him.Rupert Svendsen-Cook led the way from pole position in the wet early laps, pursued by Carlos Huertas and Nasr – who was lucky to make the grid after a car-damaging qualifying incident – to make it a Carlin 1-2-3. But Foresti was on the march early, jumping two slots to fourth on the opening lap and then lifting third place from Nasr on lap seven. Next time around Nasr joined early pit-stoppers Will Buller, Pipo Derani and Kevin Magnussen for slick tyres.Svendsen-Cook opted to stay out on wets but saw his three-second lead whittled away to nothing within three laps as Foresti swept past Huertas for second place and then closed on to the leader’s tail.“We had a massive lead and my pace was excellent but Lucas seemed to have a lot more pace than me even though he was on the same tyres,” said Rupert. “I could probably have fought with him to the end of the race, but it was difficult to know that at the time. We certainly had the pace to win, we proved that.”Svendsen-Cook’s stop gave Foresti a comfortable 14-second lead over second-placed Scott Pye, the Double R man another to risk a run to the flag on wet tyres. But Nasr was on the way… Felipe, his slicks well up to temperature, swept past Svendsen-Cook on lap 13 for fourth place, snatched third from T-Sport’s Yann Cunha on lap 14, and then caught and passed Pye for second with four laps of the race remaining.Foresti was 17 seconds clear by this stage but Nasr believed the gap bridgeable. He nearly achieved it, too, whittling the winner’s advantage back to just 4.9s by the fall of the chequered flag.“I didn’t think about pitting,” said Foresti. “I just tried to manage the situation and go as fast as I could. I got a good gap but it was not big enough for me to come in and change to slicks. If the race had been one lap longer then there would have been a big battle for first place.”Added Nasr: “Maybe if the race had been one lap longer…But it’s a great result; scoring points means more than anything. I thought I was not even going to get a race after my accident in qualifying; there was a lot of last-minute work. Big thanks to Carlin.”Svendsen-Cook claimed third from Pye two laps from the end. Thereafter, as his tyres fell away, Scott slipped back to seventh. Fourth went the way of Jazeman Jaafar, fifth to Huertas, and sixth to Buller, the first of the pit-stoppers. Fortec man Will’s major handicap had been a very slow start which cost him seven places on the opening lap.Kevin Magnussen was classified eighth after attracting a 10-second penalty for late work on his car on the grid, with Menasheh Idafar ninth for T-Sport and Harry Tincknell 10th for Fortec. Hitech’s Kotaro Sakurai led the Rookie class from the outset and was granted an easy class win when his class rival Bart Hylkema slithered off on lap four.Tincknell will start tomorrow morning’s 11th championship round, the 20-minute semi-reverse grid sprint race, from pole position after his finishing position was drawn by today’s race winner.Sunday afternoon’s 40-minute feature race will see Svendsen-Cook on the pole again thanks the to the Suffolk driver’s dominant qualifying performance. Sino Vision Racing’s Adderly Fong will line up second for Round 12 thanks to a stellar qualifying lap by the Chinese 21-year-old to claim his best-ever grid slot.Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series Round 10, Brands Hatch 18/6/2011 21 laps / 51.10 milesProvisional results Championship class1 Lucas FORESTI / BRA, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes 30m 35.827s / 100.20mph2 Felipe NASR / BRA, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +4.966s3 Rupert SVENDSEN-COOK / GBR, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +12.447s4 Jazeman JAAFAR / MAS, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +16.903s5 Carlos HUERTAS / COL, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +19.329s6 William BULLER /GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes +21.838s7 Scott PYE / AUS, Double R Dallara-Mercedes +28.417s8 Kevin MAGNUSSEN / DEN, Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen +29.708s9 Menasheh IDAFAR / GBR, T-Sport Dallara-Volkswagen +34.168s10 Harry TINCKNELL / GBR, Fortec Dallara-Mercedes +38.714s etcRookie class1 Kotaro SAKURAI / JPN, Hitech Dallara-Mugen Honda 20 laps Fastest lap Buller 1m 19.566s / 110.09mphProvisional championship standings1 Nasr 129 points; 2 Foresti 91; 3 Huertas 79; 4 Jaafar 78; 5 Magnussen 60; 6 Svendsen-Cook 57 etc.Rookie class1 Bart Hylkema 130; 2 Sakurai 93.
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