First win for Perez.

National Class champ secures maiden outright win.

Sergio Perez has secured his first outright win in the British F3 International Series after mastering tricky conditions in the opening race of the weekend at Croft.

The reigning National Class champion gave Russell Eacott's T-Sport team its first British F3 in the process as well as taking the Mugen-Honda engine to its first success since the 2006 campaign.

With the field on wet tyres for the start, pole sitter Marcus Ericsson made a poor getaway off the line and was passed by Perez, Sebastien Hohenthal and Michael Devaney on the run to Clervaux for the first time. Further back, Oliver Turvey had stalled his Carlin Motorsport Dallara on the line, forcing the cars behind to take avoiding action in the spray kicked up as the field left the line. Luckily, no-one collected the Racing Steps Foundation driver and he got his Mercedes engine fired up and rejoined in 19th. However, his Carlin team-mate Brendon Hartley was in the wars, clashing with Ricardo Teixeira on lap one as both drivers were forced to retire.

At the end of lap one it was Perez followed closely by Hohethal, with Devaney in third and fourth placed Ericsson coming under pressure from points leader Jaime Alguersuari, who had made up five places on the opening lap. Alguesuari swept past Ericsson on lap three and started to reel in Devaney, while the Irish drivers Ultimate team-mate Esteban Guerrieri was also on the move after losing two places on the opening lap, moving ahead of Atte Mustonen at the hairpin on lap four and then repeating the move a lap later on Ericsson.

By lap nine, Perez had started to pull away from Hohethal, ending the lap 1.8 seconds ahead of the Swede, who in turn held a 3.6 second advantage over Devaney. A dry line had started to appear on the track and the front runners were trying to keep their Avon wet weather tyres cool by seeking out the wet patches off the racing line on the start finish straight.

Atte Mustonen started to make his presence felt by posting the fastest lap on three successive laps but the Finn couldn't make any inroads in the gap between himself and fifth placed Guerrieri. The Argentine driver was concentrating on the Red Bull Dallara of Alguersuari ahead of him on lap 11 and he got close enough to attempt a passing move at Tower. The Ultimate Mygale went down the inside and moved into fourth place while Mustonen followed Guerrieri's lead and demoted Alguesuari to sixth.

The top three looked pretty well set but then Guerrieri started to close on his teammate Devaney, the Mercedes engine in the back of his Mygale misfiring intermittently. The Irish driver looked determined to hold onto the podium position and everyone held their breath as the Guerrieri went around the outside of his team-mate at Tower in the final lap.

The two Mygales exited the corner side by side but it was Guerrieri who moved ahead as they approached the Jim Clark Esses. As the cars came into the complex Devaney's car slowed dramatically as the chequered flag approached and he could do nothing to stop himself slipping out of the points.

At the flag it was Sergio Perez who punched the air in delight, with Hohenthal finishing in second place, which was enough to give the Swede a one point lead in the championship over his team-mate Marcus Ericsson who finished fifth. Guerrieri took his first Formula 3 podium for two years and his first in British F3 - also scoring the first podium for the Mygale chassis - while the bonus point for fastest lap went to Hitech's Max Chilton, who switched to slick tyres just before the end of the race and set a time comfortably quicker than anyone else.

Andy Meyrick took his third win and also took the point for the fastest lap to continue his domination of the National Class and holds a 19 point advantage over Jay Bridger.


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