Carlin's Nicolai Kjaergaard converted his front row start into his fourth win of the year in a damp opening contest at Donington Park this afternoon.

Kjaergaard got the jump on pole sitter and team mate Billy Monger, and then led the contest from lights to flag, and kept his cool under late pressure from fellow Carlin driver Jamie Caroline, who rose from sixth on the grid to claim second, with Krishnaraaj Mahadik taking the final podium spot in third.

Monger claimed fourth, having fallen as far back as sixth at one point, with the British driver fending off a race-long battle with Lanan Racing's Kush Maini. Ayrton Simmons held a podium spot for Chris Dittmann Racing for much of the race, but dropped back to sixth by the chequered flag.

Fortec's Manuel Maldonado claimed seventh, less than two tenths behind Simmons, while Double R's championship leader Linus Lundqvist climbed from 14th on the grid to take eighth, with Simmons, Maldonado and Lundqvist separated by half a second at the chequered flag.

Hillspeed's Jusuf Owega and Douglas Motorsport's Jamie Chadwick completed the top-10.

At the start, Monger made a stuttering get away from pole position, with Kjaergaard already into the lead by the time the field reached Redgate corner, leaving the British driver to fend off the challenges of Simmons on the opening lap.

Kjaergaard's lead was over 1.7 seconds at the end of lap one with Monger holding off Simmons, while Caroline's decent start saw him climb up two places in the opening stages.

It wasn't plain sailing for Kjaergaard, Simmons passed Monger on lap two and cut Kjaergaard's lead to 0.8s, while Monger dropped to sixth, promoting Caroline into the podium places.

Simmons continued to threaten Kjaergaard on lap three, but a charging Caroline moved past the Chris Dittmann Racing driver on lap four and then set his sights on his Danish team mate.

Kjaergaard held a lead of 2.3 seconds in the next few laps, but Caroline began to close that back down again, narrowing the gap to 1.6s on lap eight, and less than a second by the penultimate lap, with the Danish driver's fourth win of the season coming by just 0.752s.

Mahadik was almost 11 seconds further back, having climbed from eighth on the grid to the podium. Mahadik was in the middle of one of the best scraps of the race, exchanging positions with Simmons on several occasions before cementing the podium spot on lap 10.

Monger fought back from his early troubles to claim fourth. He began his fightback by passing Maldonado on lap six, and then claimed fourth when Simmons slipped back on the penultimate lap. Throughout, Monger was almost constantly fending off attention from Maini, celebrating his birthday today, with Monger only breaking clear of the battle in the final stages when he began to threaten for the podium again as Mahadik and Simmons fought for position.

Maini settled for fifth in the end on his 18th birthday, having been as close as 0.116s to Monger, and was comfortably clear of Simmons, who seemed destined for the podium only to slip back on lap 11.

Maldonado dropped from fifth on the grid to finish seventh, having run as high as fourth in the opening stages, while Lundqvist's recovery from 14th on the grid started with a five place gain on lap one. He fell back to 10th shortly after, but made a move stick on Owega on lap nine, and then climbed up to eighth, to minimise the damage to his championship lead.

Owega fell from fourth on the grid to eighth on the opening lap, though secured another top-10 result with ninth, with Chadwick starting 10th and holding the position at the flag.

Series newcomers Hampus Ericsson and Cian Carey finished 13th and 19th respectively for Fortec and Chris Dittmann Racing respectively. The top three drivers were presented with their trophies on the podium by BTCC race winner and BRDC member Adam Morgan.

The second race of the weekend starts at 11am tomorrow morning (Sunday).

BRDC British F3 Championship, Donington Park race one result:

1. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Carlin, 12 laps

2. Jamie Caroline, Carlin, +0.752s

3. Krishnaraaj Mahadik, Double R Racing, +11.471s

4. Billy Monger, Carlin, +13.742s

5. Kush Maini, Lanan Racing, +15.354s

6. Ayrton Simmons, Chris Dittmann Racing, +17.156s

7. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +17.343s

8. Linus Lundqvist, Double R Racing, +17.560s

9. Jusuf Owega, Hillspeed, +19.570s

10. Jamie Chadwick, Douglas Motorsport, +20.354s

11. Max Defourny, Douglas Motorsport, +21.288s

12. Tom Gamble, Fortec Motorsports, +24.852s

13. Hampus Ericsson, Fortec Motorsports, +25.105s

14. Arvin Esmaeili, Douglas Motorsport, +28.764s

15. Pavan Ravishankar, Double R Racing, +33.316s

16. Josh Mason, Lanan Racing, +44.722s

17. Ben Hurst, Hillspeed, +50.311s

18. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +52.449s

19. Cian Carey, Chris Dittmann Racing, +53.772s

20. Sun Yue Yang, Carlin, +1m15.407s