Carlin's Enaam Ahmed is the 2017 BRDC British F3 champion after fending off Toby Sowery to take his 12th victory of the year in the final race of the weekend at Snetterton.

Ahmed started from pole, and after resisting a race long challenge from Sowery crossed the line less than half a second ahead of his rival to secure the championship in style. His only title rival, team mate James Pull, needed to win and for Ahmed to fail to finish to stand any chance of taking the title battle to Donington, and despite a strong start to rise from 11th on the grid to seventh at the end of the first lap, was unable to make any further progress.

Ahmed made a great start to lead into Riches on the first lap with Sowery following suit in second. Sowery put the champion elect under massive pressure throughout with the gap constantly at around half a second, but wasn't able to force a move, with Ahmed crossing the line at the end of ten laps to the adulation of his Carlin team. Jordan Cane backed up his earlier win with third place, with Callan O'Keeffe fourth and just 0.617s behind.

Krishnaraaj Mahadik capped off a strong weekend with fifth place ahead of Hillspeed with Cliff Dempsey Racing's Chase Owen. Pull was seventh, a result that now puts him behind Sowery in the championship standings, with Fortec's Ben Hingeley finishing eighth on the road but handed a two second time penalty post race after an incident with Cameron Das who benefited to take the position and and also scooped the Sunoco Fastest Lap Award. Hingeley had to settle for ninth with Guilherme Samaia completing the top-10.

Ahmed, who celebrated his title success with an exuberant display of doughnuts on the slowing down lap, joins the likes of Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Daniel Ricciardo and last year's winner Matheus Leist as a British F3 champion, commented: "It's been a pretty emotional year, we've been working together for a year now and working towards this for over a year. There's a lot of people that have come with me on the road to this and I'm really thankful for that.

"I'd like to say a big thanks to Carlin, so to Trevor, Mark, my mechanic Matt, Sam, all the guys has been really good to me this whole season, and I'd really like to say a big thanks to Trevor for signing me for this year and for believing in me. He thought I had the potential at the end of last year so I'm really grateful that he wanted me to drive his car and also to my parents and my coach Roberto who comes all the way from Brazil Without him, the last year and a half wouldn't really have be possible.

"Where it goes from here is up to Trevor and I hope he can help me out with that and hopefully I can stay with them next year and stay in an F3 car."

BRDC British F3 Championship, Snetterton race three result:

1. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, 10 laps

2. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, +0.455s

3. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +4.810s

4. Callan O'Keeffe, Douglas Motorsport, +5.427s

5. Krishnaraaj Mahadik, Double R Racing, +11.182s

6. Chase Owen, Hillspeed with Cliff Dempsey Racing, +11.529s

7. James Pull, Carlin, +12.934s

8. Cameron Das, Carlin, +14.759s

9. Ben Hingeley, Fortec Motorsports, +16.401s

10. Guilherme Samaia, Double R Racing, +17.706s

11. Jamie Chadwick, Double R Racing, +19.978s

12. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Fortec Motorsports, +21.723s

13. Nick Worm, Hillspeed with Cliff Dempsey Racing, +27.182s

14. Omar Ismail, Chris Dittmann Racing, +56.135s

DNF. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +8 laps