Vergne and Jaafar take Carlin one-two

Jean-Eric Vergne led home a Carlin one-two this afternoon, at the Hockeheim circuit in Germany. The Red Bull Junior retook the championship lead with his fourth victory ahead of Jazeman Jaafar in an eventful race which saw two aborted starts and numerous drive-through penalties. James Calado drove a solid race to cross the line in fourth place, with Adriano Buzaid fifth to put four Carlin cars in the top five. Lucas Foresti and Rupert Svendsen-Cook finished fifth, 12th and 13th respectively after drive-through penalties.

Jean-Eric Vergne takes the checkered flag Credit: British F3

The action started before the drivers even got underway this afternoon, when Gabriel Dias suffered a technical issue on the grid which led to two aborted starts. When the race did finally get underway, Dias was missing from his second placed grid slot, giving championship leader Oli Webb a clear run down to the first corner from his fourth place.

It was a case of time third time lucky as the lights went out - Vergne made a strong start to pull away as did team mate Buzaid and Jaafar who passed Webb in the run into the first corner. Jaafar soon found himself under attack however, as Webb passed him half a lap later. Jaafar stayed close though and moved up one place when Webb ran wide at the end of lap one.

As the cars started the second lap, Vergne had already pulled a comfortable lead, ahead of Buzaid and Jaafar, making it an early Carlin 1-2-3. Calado meanwhile was sixth, with Svendsen-Cook eighth and Lucas Foresti 11th.

In the mid field, there was plenty of overtaking action, Calado was fighting with Daniel McKenzie while Svendsen-Cook was fighting with Carlos Huertas and team mate Lucas Foresti. By lap eight, the penalties that affected so many drivers in qualifying started to become an issue again; several drivers were handed drive-through penalties for crossing the white line at the first corner. Svendsen-Cook was one of the first to be called in and on lap eight, Buzaid saw his hopes of a podium fade when he was penalised as well. As several drivers in front of him were forced to drive through the pits, Foresti had moved up to fifth place, but was also handed a drivethrough penalty in the final stages of the race.

At the chequered flag, Vergne took a comfortable victory by nearly 20 seconds, ahead of Jaafar who took a well earned second place. Calado just missed out on a podium in fourth pace after a very solid drive from 10th place on the grid. Buzaid had recovered well to cross the line in fifth place, while Svendsen-Cook was 12th just ahead of Foresti.

Speaking about his race, Vergne said, "I had a really normal start, I didn't have anyone next to me so I just made sure I was very sensible. I wanted to be first into the first corner and that's what I did. I pushed hard to pull a gap and then I saw Adriano [Buzaid] wasn't behind me anymore. In the last part of the race I pushed hard again and I managed to almost equal my quickest lap. The car was amazing, I have to say thanks to the team because I think it was probably the best car I've ever had in an F3 race."

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