Fortec's Ben Hingeley claimed a dramatic victory in race one of the BRDC British F3 Championship weekend at Spa Francorchamps, while championship leader Enaam Ahmed extended his title lead with second place, with Guilherme Samaia scooping a maiden podium finish with third.

Hingeley started third on the grid, but passed Toby Sowery for the lead on lap three at the Bus Stop Chicane with the move initially investigated by the stewards but no further action was taken. Sowery was forced to settle for fourth after being overtaken by Samaia, while Jordan Cane finished fifth for Douglas Motorsport after an entertaining battle with Jamie Chadwick, who claimed sixth for Double R Racing.

Cameron Das secured seventh while James Pull climbed from 17th on the grid to take a well earned eighth place. Callan O'Keeffe and Chase Owen completed the top-10.

Pole man Ahmed made a good start to lead down to La Source on lap one, while Hingeley challenged Sowery for second place. Coming to the end of the Kemmel straight into Les Combes, Sowery and Hingeley were able to make use of the tow to draft past Ahmed, with the championship leader ending the lap in third place. Meanwhile, further back, James Pull was already up to 10th place after his qualifying issues.

Sowery had built a small lead early on but Hingeley began to peg him back, and the pair were separated by just 0.4 seconds starting lap three. On the approach to the Bus Stop Chicane, Hingeley pulled out of Sowery's slipstream and the pair were side by side through the initial right hand turn with Hingeley on the outside. The pair appeared to make slight contact and Hingeley took the inside of the left hand turn, claiming the lead.

The Fortec driver then set about building a lead of two seconds, while Sowery was further demoted on lap four, first by title rival Ahmed and then by Brazilian Samaia, enjoying his best race of the season.

Ahmed set about trimming Hingeley's lead and had it down to 1.1 seconds by the end of the race, but ultimately ran out of laps in his pursuit. Samaia finished a further two seconds back securing his first podium finish on the back of a very strong weekend so far. Sowery had tried to at least regain a podium spot, and got the gap down to half a second at one point before settling for fourth.

Cane and Chadwick provided plenty of entertainment, the pair frequently changing places before Cane emerged ahead in fifth. Pull's reward for a strong fightback to eighth is pole position for tomorrow's top-eight reversed race, which starts at 10.40 local time.

The top three drivers were presented with their trophies by ex-F1 racer Martin Donnelly.

Hingeley commented: "Last time out I claimed a win on a brilliant track like Silverstone and I've done the same today so I'm really made up. I got a great start and a lovely tow down the back straight on both Toby and Enaam and managed to get around the outside of Enaam. I pushed on to catch Toby and I had the pace on him.

"I caught him and got a really nice tow down the back straight into the chicane and he defended to the inside, I went to the outside, out-braked him and got the move done. As we went through the right I had the inside for the left and I'm not sure if because he took a tighter line, he understeered but there was a bit of contact which pushed me off the track and I had to take to the escape road a little bit. These things happen with racing and without the contact I would have made the corner quite comfortably.

"We'll go again now, we've got the night to think about anything we need to change and try and figure out why the rear tyres went off a little bit and we'll come back tomorrow to try and get another two wins."

BRDC British F3 Championship, Spa Francorchamps, race one result:

1. Ben Hingeley, Fortec Motorsports 9 laps

2. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, +1.123s

3. Guilherme Samaia, Double R Racing, +3.159s

4. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, +4.426s

5. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +8.647s

6. Jamie Chadwick, Double R Racing, +9.255s

7. Cameron Das, Carlin, +9.988s

8. James Pull, Carlin, +10.500s

9. Callan O'Keeffe, Douglas Motorsport, +11.100s

10. Chase Owen, Hillspeed with Cliff Dempsey Racing, +11.218s

11. Omar Ismail, Chris Dittmann Racing, +17.822s

12. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Fortec Motorsports, +18.447s

13. Jeremy Wahome, Chris Dittmann Racing, +22.696s

14. Nick Worm, Hillspeed, +28.792s

15. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +45.627s

16. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, +1m26.759s

17. Tristan Charpentier, Chris Dittmann Racing, +1 lap