Double R Racing's Linus Lundqvist stretched his championship lead with a lights to flag victory in the opening race at Silverstone, holding off a late charge from Lanan Racing's Kush Maini to take his fourth win of the season.

Maini was just 0.392s behind at the chequered flag, with Jordan Cane taking third for Douglas Motorsport, having closed right up to the top-two in the closing stages.

Clement Novalak claimed fourth for Carlin, holding off a race long threat from Douglas Motorsport's Jamie Chadwick in fifth, with Nicolai Kjaergaard sixth for Carlin. Jusuf Owega claimed seventh for Hillspeed after a late move on Carlin's Billy Monger, with Krishnaraaj Mahadik and Tom Gamble completing the top-10.

Lundqvist and Maini both made good starts to lead into Copse on the first lap, with Cane getting off the line well to claim third from Novalak. Further back, Kjaergaard was making amends for his seventh place qualifying to pass team mate Monger for sixth place, while Mahadik had a great opening tour to rise from 15th on the grid to claim 10th at the end of lap one.

Lundqvist's lead was almost eight tenths after the opening lap, but from then on Maini was fractions quicker, and brought the margin down to just under half a second by lap seven, with Maini setting a new BRDC British F3 lap record around the newly resurfaced Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in the process.

On lap eight, Maini was close enough to Lundqvist to attempt a move. Exiting Aintree corner, he was firmly in the slipstream down the Wellington straight, and was close enough to challenge at Brooklands. He was alongside but took the outside line at Luffield, with Lundqvist holding him off across the line starting lap nine, with the pair separated by just over a tenth of a second. The pair were close again at Copse at the start of lap nine, with their scrap almost bringing Cane into the battle for the lead.

Lundqvist stretched the margin back out to almost half a second starting the last lap, and held off the Indian driver to win by just under four tenths, to increase his championship lead to 48 points. Maini's second place puts him much closer in the championship standings to Kjaergaard, while Cane climbs to seventh overall.

The top-three drivers were presented with their trophies on the podium by BRDC member and GT racer Martin Plowman. The BRDC British F3 field are back in action with the reverse grid race two at 11.40am tomorrow (Sunday).

BRDC British F3 Championship, Silverstone race one result:

1. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, 10 laps

2. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +0.392s

3. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +1.133s

4. Clement Novalak, Carlin, +3.617s

5. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +4.675s

6. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, +5.882s

7. Jusuf Owega, Hillspeed, +11.091s

8. Billy Monger, Carlin, +13.121s

9. Krishnaraaj Mahadik, Double R Racing, +17.121s

10. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +17.850s

11. Tristan Charpentier, Fortec Motorsports, +18.566s

12. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +19.005s

13. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +19.452s

14. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +21.073s

15. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +22.277s

16. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +32.180s

17. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +1 lap