Hohenthal thrilled with first win.

Sebastien Hohenthal put the recent problems suffered by the Fortec Motorsport team to one side to secure his maiden victory in the British F3 International Series at Brands Hatch.

A reported bust-up with team-mate Greg Mansell following the second race at Monza has led to a split within the team - with Hohenthal now effectively running alone as a single car seperate from Greg and Leo Mansell - but the rookie put the off-track incidents firmly in the past during an action packed weekend at Brands.

Having qualified seventh for the opening race, Hohenthal promptly jumped the start which meant he had to serve a drive through penalty and could only finish 16th, but the Formula Renault graduate more than made amends for his error in race two as he converted a front row start into his maiden F3 win.

"After a few changes in the team we are now a single car operation with no data-sharing with any other car," he said in his regular blog on his website www.hohethal.se. "It is a hard task but the best solution for us considering our position. We won our first Formula 3 race and there are five of us that made it - it wasn't me, it was us: Alex Fleming - mechanic, Graham Frazier - truckie, James Knight - mechanic, Mick Kouros - chief engineer, Andy Scott - race engineer. Thanks guys for our first F3 victory! This win I think we all will remember for quite a while.

"Following three ok test sessions on Friday we changed quite a lot for Saturday qualifying. For the first time this season I made the first row for the second race and that was really great fun. The car went like a rocket and it dragged me along with it. In the first race I was too much pumped up and jumped the start from seventh position. I held fourth in the opening laps before I took my penalty with a drive-thru penalty.

"In race two, Marko Asmer, the man to beat this season, was on pole and my old team-mate from last year, Sam Bird was behind us in third. When the red lights went off I quickly passed Marko on the inside down Paddock Hill Bend. Following that I took a few laps at the time with Marko's car in my mirrors trough the race. After 22 laps and a dramatic final lap when I almost was off the track having to lap slower cars I was finally first over the finishing line and that feeling I will probably never be able to describe."

Hohenthal now lies seventh in the championship standings.