Silverstone F3.5: Fittipaldi takes lights-to-flag win in Race 1

Leading the way off the line, Fittipaldi headed the Russian duo of Egor Orudzhev and Matevos Isaakyan as the SMP Racing pair overtook Rene Binder at the start.

Fittipaldi proceeded to build a large early lead over Orudzhev, going almost seven seconds clear of his rival after as many laps. Orudzhev then hit back, steadily eating into the Lotus driver’s lead.

After two-thirds of the half-hour race time had elapsed, Orudzhev had reduced the deficit to less than three seconds and was still catching the Brazilian.

However, Fittipaldi’s dominance of the race weekend continued, and he held his nerve to beat Orudzhev home by just 0.749s.

The final podium place was claimed by Alfonso Celis Jr, who drove a hard-fought race from fifth on the grid to end up less than a second behind the lead pair by the finish. 

Celis cleared Binder early on and proceeded to catch up to Isaakyan, who was unable to resist the Mexican’s advances despite some robust defending; Isaakyan was edged off the road into Maggotts to fall behind the Fortec driver.

Rene Binder could not capitalise on his front row start and ended up only fifth after a quiet race, while Damiano Fioravanti stayed ahead of Nelson Mason to finish sixth as top rookie.

Mason – who missed Friday’s qualifying after not getting the correct licence clearance – briefly came unstuck behind Teo Martin teammate Konstantin Tereshchenko after a good start, locking up and falling behind Yu Kanamaru, but the Canadian recovered to pass both drivers and had caught up to Fioravanti by the end.

Tereshchenko remained behind his teammate on track and finished eighth, ahead of Diego Menchaca, who passed Yu Kanamaru in the latter stages despite an early pitstop for damage.

Cipriani rounded out the finishers in 11th, while Roy Nissany retired early on after a first-lap scuffle with Tereshchenko.

Race 1 Results: