Magnussen fends off Nasr for win

Date published : 02 Jul 2011 - 14:44:44

Kevin Magnussen won a tense battle of nerves with British Formula 3 championship leader Felipe Nasr to claim his third win of the season at the Nurburgring this afternoon.The Dane converted his pole position into an immediate lead, but could not shake off Carlin team-mate Nasr, who kept up pressure on his rival throughout the 15 laps but could not get close enough to mount a serious bid for victory.The gap between the two see-sawed over the first half of the race, with Nasr closing in before a couple of stellar laps from Magnussen eked the gap out to 1.4 seconds at mid-distance.Nasr redoubled his efforts over the remainder of the race, but Magnussen was able to respond again and eventually crossed the line half a second clear.Fortec's Harry Tincknell made a sensational start from the fourth row of the grid to leap into third through the opening sequence of turns.The rookie could not keep pace with the front two and finished over 12s adrift of the leaders, with Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar a further six tenths back in fourth after a fruitless pursuit of Tincknell.Tincknell's Fortec team-mate Will Buller got the better of Carlin duo Rupert Svendsen-Cook and Carlos Huertas (who retired with suspension damage after locking up and tagging Tincknell at Turn 1) to take fifth.The Northern Irishman had to get defensive to keep Hitech's charging Antonio Felix da Costa at bay. The Portuguese qualified fourth for this race but started ninth after a grid penalty for failing to respect yellow flags.He rose to seventh on the opening lap and got the better of Carlin's fast-starting Jack Harvey (having one of his best races of the year) next time around. Contact with Buller on the final lap damaged da Costa's front wing and he only just made it home ahead of a fast closing Harvey and Svendsen-Cook.T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar rose to ninth after starting 12th, while Fortec's Lucas Foresti fell back from seventh on the grid to 10th and thus claimed the final point.Results - 15 laps:Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW 28m49.811s 2. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW + 0.544s 3. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc + 13.072s 4. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW + 13.622s 5. Will Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc + 21.916s 6. Antonio Felix da Costa Hitech Dallara-VW + 22.234s 7. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW + 22.379s 8. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW + 23.578s 9. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-VW + 29.013s10. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc + 29.747s11. Pedro Nunes Hitech Dallara-VW + 30.230s12. Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW + 31.368s13. Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc + 34.585s14. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec Dallara-Merc + 38.932s15. Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc + 43.830s16. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 47.953s17. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc + 54.104s18. Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-Mugen + 55.633s19. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-VW + 56.230s20. Kotaro Sakurai Hitech Dallara-Mugen + 1m00.144sRetirements: Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW 0 laps