Toby Sowery has won his first race of the 2017 BRDC British F3 season, dominating ahead of Carlin drivers Enaam Ahmed and James Pull in the opening round of the weekend at Silverstone.

Making the most of his pole position, Sowery assumed an immediate lead and spent the opening laps fending off the attentions of Ahmed, whilst behind the championship leader, Ben Hingeley, James Pull and Callan O'Keeffe battled over third place. Pull managed to hold onto his qualifying position, but Hingeley was less fortunate, losing a place to O'Keeffe. Behind, the main losers in the opening lap skirmishes were Cameron Das, who fell to seventh place between the Fortecs of Manuel Maldonado and Nicolai Kjaergaard, and Jordan Cane, who dropped to the tail of the field. Meanwhile Chase Owen's race ended before the lap was complete.

As the race progressed, Sowery began to pull clear of Ahmed, who was having to fend off the attentions of his team-mate, with O'Keeffe remaining in touch with the podium fight and Hingeley dropping back.

Whilst the top five remained in this order until the chequered flag, sixth place became an intense fight between Das and the Fortecs of Maldonado and Kjaergaard. Carlin's Das was determined to pass the Venezuelan and tried several manoeuvres, which proved successful as he cleared the two cars, and Kjaergaard also passed his team-mate. Whilst this meant that Maldonado fell to eighth place, this result means he'll start race two from pole position.

Ninth place was taken by Jamie Chadwick, who was the main beneficiary of the opening lap battles. She fell back from the battle for sixth place, and ended the race just clear of a fight between the Chris Dittmann cars of Jeremy Wahome and Omar Ismail. Wahome was running in tenth place, but lost out to team-mate Ismail at the end of the race, despite trying his best to regain the place.

A delighted Sowery finished the race over five seconds clear of Ahmed and this moves him to within six points of O'Keeffe in fifth place in the standings. Ahmed's second place means that he extends his title lead over team-mate Das, the gap now 56 points.

On the podium, where trophies were presented by GT racing BRDC member Stuart Hall, Sowery said: "Enaam got a really good getaway again, put a lot of pressure on for the first two laps, but we managed to maintain a gap and eventually come out with the win."

BRDC British F3 Race One

1. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, 10 Laps

2. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, +5.265s

3. James Pull, Carlin, +5.779s

4. Callan O’Keeffe, Douglas Motorsport, +7.949s

5. Ben Hingeley, Fortec Motorsports, +12.089s

6. Cameron Das, Carlin, +14.813s

7. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Fortec Motorsports, +19.068s

8. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +20.701s

9. Jamie Chadwick, Double R Racing, +31.713s

10. Omar Ismail, Chris Dittmann Racing, +32.276s

11. Jeremy Wahome, Chris Dittmann Racing, +32.525s

12. Aaron Di Comberti, Lanan Racing, +35.022s

13. Nick Worm, Hillspeed, +47.440s

14. Guilherme Samaia, Double R Racing, +1:43.516s

15. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +1 Lap

16. Chase Owen, Hillspeed, DNF