Daniel Ricciardo took a second successive victory in British F3 this afternoon, with a dominant drive in the second race at Oulton Park.  The 19 year-old Australian driver took the lead at the start and drove home to take his second win and an early championship lead.  Team mate Max Chilton drove a strong race to cross the line in fourth, with Oliver Oakes eighth and Henry Arundel also in the points in ninth.

As the cars lined up for race two at Oulton Park, Ricciardo was the leading Carlin driver, lining up in second place.  Max Chilton was next in fifth place, while Henry Arundel lined up eighth and Oliver Oakes tenth.  Waiting on the grid, Ricciardo suffered a small brake fire, but that didn’t deter the Red Bull racer who hurtled into the lead past pole sitter Walter Grubmuller.  Max Chilton also made a good start, passing Riki Christodoulou and Nick Tandy to surge into third place.  However, an incident between two T-Sport cars brought out the red flag half way round the first lap – forcing the drivers to reform on the grid and return to original positions.

It was a copy cat start for Ricciardo and Chilton when the lights went out for the second time.  The duo both moved up to first and third respectively, with Ricciardo immediately looking dominant at the front.  Chilton lost out to Tandy at the end of lap one, and crossed the line in fourth place as the drivers started lap two.  Behind them, Oli Oakes had made a strong start to move up to ninth pace, with team mate Arundel just behind him in tenth.

In a relatively uneventful race, the order remained unchanged until lap 11, when Huertas ran wide at Knickerbrook on lap eleven, elevating Oakes and Arundel to eighth and ninth respectively.  All four Carlin drivers continued unchallenged to the chequered flag, with Ricciardo crossing the line over two and half seconds ahead of second placed man Grubmuller.  Chilton made up for disappointing race one to take home 10 points in fourth place while both Oakes and Arundel came home in the points.

Reflecting on his first weekend in the series, Ricciardo said, “I think I’ve got to grips with the F3 style starts now, and I made a good start both times in race two.   I was able to pull out a bit of a gap within the first few laps.  From then on I was just looking at my times and trying to remain consistent.  I’m really pleased to have made a good start to the season, it’s only the first race, but I’ll feel confident when I get in the car for the next round.”

Team Principal Trevor Carlin added, “Another great race from Daniel and also from Max who made up for the first race with two great starts this afternoon.  It’s a great start to the season to win both races, but once again we won’t be happy until all four drivers are challenging for podium positions.  Volkswagen have provided us with an engine to win with from the start, and I think we proved that we’ve got a quick car again this season.  We’ll be pushing hard to keep up this level of performance for the next round – when I hope we’ll see all four drivers as front runners.”