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McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalist Toby Sowery will remain in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship with Lanan Racing for 2017.

Sowery's deal makes him the highest-placed driver from the 2016 championship to stay on.

He finished last year's campaign third in the points behind eventual champion Matheus Leist and Carlin's Ricky Collard, with five victories to his name.

"There's definitely a lot of pressure to go back and win," the 20-year-old, an Award finalist in both 2015 and '16, told Autosport.

"We're much better prepared; we've done pre-season testing and the form has been really good.

"If we can have consistent weekends it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

"The other boys are very fast as well but I think we've shown the pace.

"The preparation has been a lot better."

Sowery completed no testing before the 2016 campaign but will start this year with sufficient pre-season mileage completed, and believes Lanan and himself have improved as a combined package.

"Now we've got the experience from last year and we've learned from our mistakes," he continued.

"We didn't have a bad year [in 2016] but we definitely didn't have the perfect year.

"We both pushed each other really hard; we didn't have the resources of Carlin or some of the other teams.

"We're better prepared and a better package all round this year."

Lanan boss Graham Johnson added: "The only reason to come back and do it twice is to win the title.

"Last year we were fairly restricted on testing and tyres with his limited budget, but he's managed to come up with a little bit more [this year].

"We've made a few changes on the car over the winter which will hopefully help us; I'm pretty confident."

Sowery joins Carlin's Autumn Trophy champion Enaam Ahmed, Ben Hingeley (Fortec) and Chris Dittmann Racing drivers Jeremy Wahome and Omar Ismail as a second-year BRDC F3 driver.

Opposition coming in from other series includes US Formula 4 champion Cameron Das, British F4 converts James Pull and Petru Florescu, former Formula Renault Eurocup driver Callan O'Keeffe, National Formula Ford 1600 race-winner Chase Owen, 2015 British GT4 champion Jamie Chadwick and ex-USF2000 driver Jordan Cane.

2017 BRITISH F3 LINE-UP SO FAR

Carlin: Enaam Ahmed, James Pull, Cameron Das

Chris Dittmann Racing: Omar Ismail, Jeremy Wahome

Double R Racing: Jamie Chadwick, Harry Hayek, TBC

Douglas Motorsport: Petru Florescu, Callan O'Keeffe

Fortec Motorsport: Ben Hingeley, Nicolai Kjaergaard, Manuel Maldonado

Hillspeed with Cliff Dempsey Racing: Jordan Cane, Chase Owen, Nick Worm

Lanan: Toby Sowery, Aaron Di Comberti

Yet to announce drivers: P1 Sport, Sean Walkinshaw Racing