KENT driver Jonathan Kennard clinched third spot and top Briton in this year's 2005 British Formula 3 National Class Championship at Silverstone.

The 20-year-old, from Tunbridge Wells, recovered from a dramatic start to take a storming second place in the first race and finished fourth in the second race.

The final double-header of the year started badly when a fire extinguisher went off in scrutineering. The Alan Docking Racing team did a great job to clean it prior to the qualifying sessions, but later examination showed that the electrics had been affected causing a misfire in the first session.

In session two, a small fire ignited when Kennard started the car, which was also caused by a surplus of extinguisher foam, but again the team did a great job to fix it before the session started.

Race one saw the youngster make a superb start before becoming boxed in at Copse, which gave him a slow exit from the corner and allowed two cars through.

Going into Brooklands for the first time everybody moved to the inside of the corner and Kennard wasted no time making his move around the outside to pass James Jakes and Salvador Duran to take third.

Barton Mawer in second was to be his next target and he quickly caught and passed him at Abbey and set after the leader Charlie Hollings.

But the deployment of the safety car until the conclusion of the race ended his chances of notching up a second successive victory.

Race two saw Kennard make another fantastic start, passing two drivers on the opening lap before the youngster began to feel uneasy with the handling of his Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda.

A slow puncture was suspected, as the car got progressively worse, leaving a frustrated Kennard to nurse the car to the finish.

Kennard said: "I'm really happy with the results, happy to be third in the Championship and top Briton, although I would have liked to have been higher, particularly as we were challenging for second going into the last round.

"It's a shame we had an unlucky start to the season, as I really think we could have been challenging for the Championship if we'd started the way things are going now.

"All the way through the year, I've been closing up more and more and I feel I improved a lot in the second half of the year and was one of the better ones out there."

Results of race one:

1. Charlie Hollings Lola-Dome F106/4 Mugen-Honda 25:59.125
2. JONATHAN KENNARD Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 25:59.618
3. Barton Mawer Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:00.053
4. Salvador Duran Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:00.883
5. Ben Clucas Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 26:02.018
6. Josh Fisher Dallara F403 Mugen-Honda 26:03.476

Results of race two:

1. Salvador Duran Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 23:33.691
2. Ben Clucas Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 23:40.225
3. Josh Fisher Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 23:44.762
4. JONATHAN KENNARD Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 24:05.005
5. Nick Jones Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 23:04.211 (1 lap down)
6. Cheong Lou Meng Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 23:12.483 (1 lap down)

Final top 10 championship positions after 22 rounds:

1. Salvador Duran 300
2. Barton Mawer 256
3 JONATHAN KENNARD 233
4. Josh Fisher 221
5. Charlie Hollings 216
6. Juho Annala 155
7. Ben Clucas 103
8. Nick Jones 69
9. Ricardo Teixeira 61
10.Cheong Lou Meng 59