Carlin's Nicolai Kjaergaard returned to the top step of the podium with a controlled victory in the final race of the weekend at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.

Taking his first victory since the Snetterton round, Kjaergaard finished ahead of team mate Jamie Caroline who shadowed him throughout, while championship leader Linus Lundqvist claimed third, his second podium of the weekend.

Tom Gamble secured his best result of the event with fourth, holding off a prolonged challenge from Carlin's Billy Monger who took fifth. Kush Maini claimed seventh ahead of Manuel Maldonado, who held off a queue of cars including Krishnaraaj Mahadik, Jusuf Owega and Sasakorn Chaimongkol.

At the start, Kjaergaard made a decent getaway to hold the lead from his pole position, while Caroline slipped past Lundqvist to take second place on the run to Paddock Hill Bend.

The Danish driver built a margin of half a second over Caroline on the first lap, and then looked to hold the advantage as he pursued his first win since the end of May. Caroline though set out to keep him under constant pressure, with the lead bouncing around throughout the race.

Caroline trimmed the lead to 0.372s on lap two, though Kjaergaard rebuilt the margin to over eight tenths on lap three. The gap was chipped away again over the next few laps, falling back down to around four tenths, before a string of fastest laps enabled Kjaergaard to push the lead to just shy of a second by lap 11. Caroline wasn't done though, and closed the gap once more, with the pair finishing 0.414s apart at the chequered flag.

There were times when Lundqvist looked to make it a three way fight at the front, but the Swede didn't quite have the pace to keep up the fight, though third place ensures he still leaves Brands Hatch with a healthy margin at the top of the standings, despite his first win-less weekend of the season.

Yang looked on course to take fourth early on, but an incident on lap six dropped him to the back of the field. That promoted a squabbling Tom Gamble and Billy Monger to fourth and fifth, the pair separated by fractions for much of the race, with Monger finishing just half a second behind.

Maini found a way past Maldonado crossing the line to start lap four, and closed right up on the Gamble/Monger battle, finishing well clear of the Venezuelan, who was occupied for much of the latter periods of the race. The Fortec Motorsports driver was forced to keep an eye on his mirrors, with Mahadik right behind for the final laps, with Mahadik in turn holding off Owega and Chaimongkol, the quartet separated by 1.2 seconds at the flag.

The top-three were presented with their trophies on the podium by BRDC Rising Star Jack Mitchell.

BRDC British F3 Championship, Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, race three result:

1. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, 14 laps

2. Jamie Caroline, Carlin, +0.414s

3. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, +2.088s

4. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +5.600s

5. Billy Monger, Carlin, +6.195s

6. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +7.106s

7. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +17.707s

8. Krishnaraaj Mahadik, Double R Racing, +17.731s

9. Jusuf Owega, Hillspeed, +18.215s

10. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +18.424s

11. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +32.316s

12. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +33.435s

13. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +41.689s

14. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +42.075s

15. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +45.144s

DNF. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +1 lap