F3 History

As the flag fell Robarts made the best start followed by Henton but Friedrich moved up to second through Paddock, Henton dropped to third with Ginn in fourth. Henton tried hard for the next two laps to get ahead of Friedrich again but on lap 4 he tried too hard and spun out at Paddock. This meant that Robarts was now leading from Friedrich, Ginn and Tony Rouff with Henton recovering fast. By lap 6 Friedrich was reeling in Robarts and Henton had moved back to fourth, two more laps and the gap from first to second was down to under half a second but the intervention of back markers opened the gap again. Friedrich caught up to Robarts again on lap 12 and he tried for the lead along the top straight but Robarts had the edge and Friedrich was slower out of Clearways so the Brazilian could never quite get ahead and Robarts crossed the line 0.2 seconds to the good.
Henton had another spin at Paddock on lap 12 as Matt Spitzley moved up to fourth at the expense of Rouff and these two held their places to the flag finishing some way behind Neil Ginn. Of the other runners Mike Tyrrell finished an oversteering seventh and Henton pitted to disconnect his rear anti-roll bar in an attempt to improve his handling. Musetti’s gear ratio changing strategy proved to be a major mistake when the new gears refused to engage and the Royale had to do most of the race in second or third.