TEAM NEWS: A thrilling finale to the Rockingham round of the Cooper Tires British F3 Series delivered two podium finishes for the Carlin team this afternoon. Jean-Eric Vergne fought back from a first lap incident to take second place and extend his lead into the championship, while James Calado crossed the line third just ahead of Adriano Buzaid in fourth.

This morning's 20 minute Sprint race delivered a podium finish for Adriano Buzaid, in the first ever British F3 race to feature compulsory pit stops. Buzaid crossed the line in third place while James Calado came home sixth, with Vergne ninth and Foresti 10th. Jazeman Jaafar finished 11th and Rupert Svendsen-Cook 13th.

The track action continued this afternoon, as the 40 minute feature race got underway. With the grid set by drivers' quickest laps in Saturday's qualifying session, Vergne consequently lined up in second place, just behind his closest championship rival Oliver Webb.

As the lights went out, Vergne made a good start and was able to challenge pole sitter Webb down the start/finish straight. As the field entered the first corner however, there was contact between some of the front runners, including Vergne. Several cars clashed in the unfolding melee which allowed Buzaid into second place, Jaafar into third and Calado fourth. As the safety car took to the track to allow marshals to remove stranded cars Vergne was able to recover to fifth place.

As racing got underway again, Buzaid made the most of the restart to pass Felipe Nasr and snatch the lead. Team mate Jaafar meanwhile was fending off team mates Calado and Vergne in a fight for third place, but a mistake from Calado at Pif Paf allowed Vergne to snatch fourth on lap nine.

By lap 10, Buzaid was under attack from Nasr and eventually relinquished the lead. The recovering Vergne was clearly determined to make up places following his first lap incident and was putting Jaafar under pressure for third, with Calado closing in as well to form a four- car Carlin train. Jaafar did well to rebuff Vergne's numerous efforts until lap 15 when Vergne finally found a way through.

By lap 18, Vergne had Buzaid in his sights in the leading Carlin car. The pair were wheel to wheel by lap 20, as was Lucas Foresti who was involved in a close battle with race two winner Daniel McKenzie for 12th place. Svendsen-Cook meanwhile ended his race in retirement - a lap down - having been the innocent victim in the first lap incident.

At the front, the squabbling Buzaid and Vergne had allowed Nasr to build up a sizeable lead, but on lap 26, Vergne finally found a way past his team mate. With Vergne now through into second, Jaafar was able to close in on Buzaid but the two collided on lap 27 resulting in Jaafar dropping down to 11th, allowing Calado up into third place, with Buzaid still fourth.

At the chequered flag Vergne was second, with Calado in third. Buzaid meanwhile managed to fend off Buller to take fourth place, while Foresti held on to 11th despite a fight to the line with McKenzie. Jaafar meanwhile fell back to 14th place having lost his front wing during his excursion off track.

Vergne said, "People always say that it's easy to win from the front, but today I think we proved that we can fight our way through the field as well. It was a pretty hectic race, but I'm happy to have scored some good points for the championship."

Trevor Carlin added, "This afternoon's race was one of the most eventful F3 races I've seen for a long time! There were some really close battles, which went in favour of some of drivers and disadvantaged others. That's the risk you face when you run so many competitive drivers.