Hadjar pounces on Martins to claim sprint race win

Isack Hadjar has won the Formula 3 sprint race at Silverstone, having laid in wait until the penultimate lap to pass early leader Victor Martins.

Reece Ushijima had taken pole position on the partially-reversed grid, ahead of championship leader Martins. The original start was aborted when Brad Benavides slowed on the circuit, the Carlin driver eventually pulling into the pits.

The race started the second time and Martins took the lead off the line, almost immediately drawing out several car lengths over Ushijima and Kush Maini, the pair battling for second position on the opening lap.

Ushijima broke away and by lap six was challenging Martins for the lead. But the desperately defending Martins forced Ushijima wide at Stowe, after which he lost touch with the leader.

By lap eight Isack Hadjar had managed to get close to Ushijima, attempting an unsuccessful pass around Copse before making the move stick through Stowe, immediately pulling away.

Laszlo Toth and Zdenek Chovanec collided on lap 10, with Chovanec coming out the worse of the two Charouz team mates. He was unable to keep going to the pits, so the Safety Car was deployed.

The race resumed on lap 13 with Martins narrowly keeping the lead from Hadjar. But his lead had been slashed and Hadjar was consistently within his DRS range.

By lap 15 Hadjar was even closer, within three tenths of Martins but not quite able to pass yet. An error by Martins saw him run wide ahead of the Hangar Straight but Hadjar fell just short of taking advantage of the mistake.

However, the gap had now closed enough that on lap 16 Hadjar managed to replicate his move on Ushijima through Stowe, claiming the lead on the penultimate tour. Hadjar was the first to see the chequered flag, with Martins holding on to second and Ushijima third.

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Formula 3 Great Britain race one results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	18	Isack Hadjar	Hitech
2	7	Victor Martins	ART
3	31	Reece Ushijima	HWA
4	12	Kush Maini	MP
5	17	Kaylen Frederick	Hitech
6	2	Roman Stanek	Trident
7	3	Zane Maloney	Trident
8	4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema
9	6	Oliver Bearman	Prema
10	5	Jak Crawford	Prema
11	10	Caio Collet	MP
12	20	David Vidales	Campos
13	29	Franco Colapinto	HWA
14	26	Zak O’Sullivan	Carlin
15	1	Jonny Edgar	Trident
16	21	Hunter Yeany	Campos
17	23	Ido Cohen	Jenzer
18	8	Gregoire Saucy	ART
19	25	William Alatalo	Jenzer
20	22	Pepe Marti	Campos
21	9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART
22	19	Nazim Azman	Hitech
23	30	Rafael Villagomez	HWA
24	11	Filip-Ioan Ugran	MP
25	16	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz
26	24	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer
27	28	Enzo Trulli	Carlin
28	27	Brad Benavides	Carlin
29	14	Laszlo Toth	Charouz
30	15	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz

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