Carlin Motorsport’s Clement Novolak converted a front row start into British F3 victory as he led almost from pillar to post on Saturday.
Novolak led home Ayrton Simmons, Johnathan Hoggard, Ulysse De Pauw and Sassakorn Chaimongkol in an incident-filled race that saw three retirements.
Hampus Ericsson was sixth ahead of Nazim Azman, Manuel Maldonado and Jewiss, with Josh Mason ahead of Kris Wright, Neil Verhagen and Frederick.
Kiern Jewiss, graduating from British F4, was adjudged to have caused the bulk of those DNFs by making contact with Maldonado force the Venezuelan into the pits and Lucas Petersson, Benjamin Pedersen and Pavan Ravishankar out.
Jewiss, recovering from a slow start, received a 10s penalty to drop from sixth to ninth in the overall classification.
Novolak bettered teammate Kaylen Frederick off the line as Simmons also bettered the American at the early stages of the race.
A lengthy Safety Car period followed, before the drivers were again let loose with eight minutes to go with various bits of British F3 car now collected.
Novolak calmly pulled away a small gap over Simmons and Hoggard, himself having recovered from a less than ideal start.
Frederick, the man to beat after qualifying, had an eventful but ultimately fruitless race as he dropped back before a puncture following contact with compatriot Verhagen effectively ended his race, Verhagen himself pitting with a broken front wing.
Race Two gets underway at 10am on Bank Holiday Monday, with no racing on Easter Sunday.