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Linus Lundqvist was full of praise for his Double R team after securing the BRDC British F3 Championship on Saturday.

A win for the Swede coupled with a DNF for Danish rival Nicolai Kjaergaard meant that Lundqvist took an unassailable 85-point lead with 72 available.

A delighted Lundqvist was quick to acknowledge the role of his team.

“This feels unreal! Mainly a big thank you to my team Double R Racing. They’ve been amazing all year, it’s been a rollercoaster from the start and we’ve kept our head down and kept on going, and here we can stand and say we’re champions. Unbelievable and very emotional.”

Lundqvist was unaware that his championship rival had hit strife until he pulled into the pits after the race to see his jubilant team.

“I didn’t know that Nicolai had gone off. I saw at the chequered flag on the pit board it said ‘Linus, P1 2018’ and I thought ‘That is usually another way’ and when I came in they had it up and the whole team was gathered and I put one and one together realised that I might have done it.”

He didn’t have it all his own way in the first race of this weekend, after fending off a challenge from the fast-starting Tom Gamble.

“Tom made a better start than I did and while he wasn’t totally alongside, he was halfway there going into Maggots. I just held my line because I had the inside for the next one and from there I kept my head down and tried to push on. The car has been great and Silverstone is one of my personal favourite circuits anyway, that always brings me a bit of a boost.”

Lundqvist refused to be drawn on his plans for 2019 with a move to international racing now looking a certainty, preferring to focus on enjoying the rest of his championship-winning weekend.

“My focus isn’t totally on next year but we’re keeping an eye on things for the future, but I want to fulfil this year and stand here and say ‘I am champion’. We’ll see, I want to see this weekend through and enjoy the last two races and the Sunoco Challenge is still at stake. Hopefully there’s more exciting things next year.

“Maybe (there is) no pressure but you still want to enjoy it and I still want to win so let’s see what we can do for the rest of this weekend, I’m just going to enjoy this.”

Linus Lundqvist won Round 22 of the 2018 BRDC British F3 Championship to seal the British F3 title after his only remaining challenger Nicolai Kjaergaard retired early on.

Lundqvist, who took his seventh victory of the season, had earlier taken pole position in tricky conditions and held off a challenge from the fast-starting Tom Gamble, who demoted Billy Monger to third.

Kjaergaard started fourth and had stayed there until halfway round the first lap, where misfortune would strike the Dane not for the first time this season.

Running behind Carlin teammate Monger, Kjaergaard was forced to take evasive action when Monger ran wide at Abbey corner to see his Championship challenge end in the gravel after spinning off as a result.

Lundqvist would never again be troubled by Gamble as the two settled into a rhythm, but behind there was plenty of action.

Manuel Maldonado briefly held third position before a lock up saw him slip back to fourth, where he would stay, while Krish Mahadik also challenged for positions in the top five but was eventually held off by a stoic Ayrton Simmons.

Jusuf Owega finished a strong seventh ahead of an improving Hampus Ericsson, with the top ten being rounded out by Jamie Chadwick and Sassakorn Chaimongkol  edging out a disappointed Kush Maini.

Lundqvist is on the verge of winning the 2018 Sunoco Challenge, with the prize including a race seat in January’s Daytona 24 Hour race. He needs just 15 points, after scoring 120 for a win and fastest lap in Race One.

Nicolai Kjaergaard overcame a possible broken hand to qualify fourth and keep his British F3 championship hopes alive at Silverstone.

However, Championship rival Linus Lundqvist is on pole and leads Kjaergaard by 50 points with just three races to go.

The Carlin racer has his work cut out but remains positive despite the circumstances.

“(On why his hand is in a cast) I had an accident yesterday and hit my hand on the steering wheel so there is a bit of difficulty holding onto the steering wheel but it’s not too bad as I could still manage fourth on the grid. The pain does sometimes take the focus away a little bit but I can still race.

“With my hand fourth isn’t too bad, with how everything is I could maybe have got third or second but pole was out of the question. But for the race I have to go for it, a win is the goal because we won’t be thinking about taking fourth or third.”

After qualifying was held in wet conditions, the first British F3 race of the weekend this afternoon looks set to be held in the dry and Kjaergaard feels that a change in weather could help his Carlin team.

“It’s difficult to say whether drier conditions will help us, we didn’t have a lot of dry running yesterday. It might serve us in that we’ve been fast in the wet and in the dry and we’ve been very quick since the summer. Some of the drivers that were faster in the wet might struggle in the dry and the other way round, so in that sense the change in conditions is probably good for us.”

And with very little to lose, he suggested that windy conditions will favour overtaking.

“It’s wide and there is quite a headwind going down the Hangar Straight which should help with a tow. If you can stay close enough to the car ahead you should be able to get close and drive past hopefully but it depends on how well you can follow.”

CREDIT: Jakob Ebery via British F3

Carlin Motorsport’s Billy Monger took pole position for British F3’s race one on Saturday on his return to Donington Park.

Teammate Nicolai Kjaergaard took second place as he seeks to close the 111-point gap on championship leader Linus Lundqvist, who could only manage 14th.

Ayrton Simmons was third on his second British F3 weekend ahead of young German Jusuf Owega, Manuel Maldonado and Kush Maini.

Monger last raced at Donington last year in British F4, when a horrendous accident cost him both legs.

The 19-year-old from Reigate says that he did not fear returning to the scene of a life-changing accident 18 months ago.

“Donington has always been one of my favourite circuits to drive at so I was actually looking forward to driving it again. With the race, it might feel different but at the minute I am not fazed by it at all. It’s funny how these things work out.

“I knew that the car was going to be quick after testing as we were really strong, but it was about doing the job in qualifying. Obviously this is a circuit holds a few weird memories for me but it’s been coming and we have been quick enough.

“I was a bit nervous because a lot of people have come here to support me but it may have given me that extra energy to do the job.”

Monger felt better in a car that has shown consistent pace all season, but felt better in the car today having threatened pole position all session.

“I just haven’t had that edge or felt quite as comfortable as today, the Carlin car was amazing and it’s great to deliver what we could have had the last couple of races.”

At Brands Hatch he declared that should he win a race, the entire Carlin team would have to drink some champagne from his prosthetic leg. That hasn’t changed.

“That is still happening (Drinking from the leg).

“Fingers crossed for this afternoon whether it is dry or wet we just have to make sure I get away well enough and after that, I don’t see many problems as our pace is strong, but anything can happen in a race.”

Kimi Raikkonen will finally leave Ferrari at the end of the season having spent the previous three years fielding questions about his future at Maranello.

And, while he now has a five-and-a-half year wait for a victory after spending a lot of that time as the rear gunner for Sebastian Vettel, Raikkonen has given us a lot of fun in his second stint with the Prancing Horse.

The 2007 World Champion’s career has gone full circle as he announced a return to Sauber, where he first burst on to the scene in 2001 while Ferrari’s protégé Charles Leclerc leaves Sauber for Ferrari.

Don’t think that this is just a farewell tour so that he can safely break the record for GP starts held by Rubens Barrichello at 323.

The Finn certainly has the speed and arguably now a point to prove. He is still level on victories with Mika Hakkinen with 20 apiece and he’s stood on the podium in seven of the last eight races and has 100 in total.

While many will be saddened that due to Vettel’s fight with Lewis Hamilton in the World championship Raikkonen won’t get the chance to break the Finnish F1 record, there are still more moments of magic, and indeed the odd blunt radio message left for us over the next two years.

Realistically, this is the right move for Ferrari. Had Leclerc had to spend more time at either of their affiliate teams (Sauber or Haas) then they ran the risk of the 20-year-old Monegasque being poached by another manufacturer.

Given the promise Leclerc has shown this year, where he has well beaten the experienced Marcus Ericsson, they couldn’t afford for that to happen.

Leclerc will do great things at Ferrari alongside Vettel, who will be motivated to avoid a repeat of the 2014 season at Red Bull where Daniel Ricciardo thrashed him after stepping up from Toro Rosso.

But for the rest of the season, Raikkonen deserves a proper farewell from Ferrari.