ALEX LYNN claimed a maiden win in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Brands Hatch on Saturday.
The 19-year-old led from start to finish under constant pressure from Ferrari Driver Academy protégé Raffaele Marciello, his team-mate in the Prema Powerteam squad.
Lynn claimed pole position for all three races – the first time this has been done in FIA European F3 history – in his Mercedes-powered Dallara. He then fended off a challenge from Marciello at the first corner, setting the fastest lap on his way to victory by the narrow margin of 0.680 seconds.
That was despite difficulties caused by the constant demands of overtaking lapped traffic on the short Brands Indy circuit.
"It was a fairly eventful race, certainly more so than I'd like," the Great Dunmow driver said. "I made a good start and I was just trying to get a gap – and every time I tried to pull a gap out I caught other cars. I was on the radio to my engineer, trying to make sure he would get the officials to wave blue flags, but the thing is every group of cars we caught were battling – you just have to stay calm and defend where you need to.
"With eight laps to go 'Lello' got very close, but I knew it would be difficult for him to overtake around the outside so I just concentrated on taking the inside line.
"It feels so good. When something like this happens… you've planned it through your head millions of times, and now there's the realisation that it's done. It's important to get that first win out of the way."
Lynn, who added this victory to a British F3 win at Silverstone last September, was to be denied in his bid to win the second and third races.
In race two he was beaten away from the start by Marciello, and held second place all the way to the finish. Alex slashed into the gap when Marciello caught back-markers, but was never close enough to challenge for the lead.
"Raffaele's always really good at the starts and mine wasn't good enough, so he deserved to win," said Lynn. "Well done to him. My pace wasn't as strong this time; the car balance wasn't to my liking."
In the third race, Lynn and Marciello went side by side to the first corner, and again the Italian grabbed the advantage. Alex chased hard and was trying to keep the pressure on when he spun at Paddock Hill Bend. Unfortunately, he was then clipped by another car and forced to retire from the race.
"I made a really good start, but obviously it wasn't quite good enough," he said. "My pace was really strong, and I was just trying to get close enough so that I could challenge when we got to lapped traffic, but I made a small mistake trying to stay with him."
He added: "It was a disappointing end, but I can take a lot of positives out of the weekend," he said. "We just have to sit down and have a look at the starts but I'm sure I can challenge for more wins."
