Maiden victory for Courtney and Jaguar Racing F3.

Rookie Australian James Courtney secured his maiden F3 victory yesterday at Silverstone with a convincing win in the opening race of the 2001 Green Flag British Formula Three Championship.

With an additional point for fastest lap and a points finish in the second of the day's two races, he ended the day second in the points standing.

Team-mate Andre Lotterer, making his debut in the British Championship also picked up points in the second of the day's races but failed to finish the first race as a result of a fault with his engine.

In race one, Courtney lost a couple of places at the start dropping from second to fourth, but an incident between Takuma Sato and Jamie Spence saw him climb back into second. From there he closed in on race leader Andy Priaulx, making his move on lap seven. He then set a series of blistering laps, including the fastest of the race to open up a 4.5 seconds lead.

Andre made a good start to hold station in tenth, but on the seventh lap was forced to retire when his engine expired.

Race two saw Courtney remain fifth at the start - but going into Becketts the Australian was aware of Martin O'Connell about to make a move.

Adopting the responsible approach of making sure that he brought his car home in the points, rather than risk a defensive manoeuvre that would see both cars eliminated from the race, James took evasive action which dropped him down to ninth, although he later gained a place after passing his team-mate.

Andre made an excellent start, driving from thirteenth to seventh in the opening lap. This included the overtaking around the outside of several cars at Luffield, a move that left many of Jaguar Racing's guests stunned by its audacity. By the close of the race's sixteen laps he had dropped back to ninth, securing two valuable Championship points.

Meanwhile, Team Avanti's Matt Davies heads the points standings with 26 points after victory in the second race. Courtney has 24 points as do Derek Hayes and Gianmaria Bruni. Andre Lotterer is twelfth with two points.