Senna leads British F3 challenge.

Bruno Senna led the British F3 International Series challenge on the BP Ultimate Masters at Zandvoort as the Brazilian driver secured a seventh place finish in Europe's most prestigious F3 race.

Senna had been second fastest in his half of the entry in first qualifying, which placed him third overall, but he spun into the gravel early in second qualifying, without having used his new set of Kumho tyres, and fell to fourth in his group, seventh on the grid.

"I probably hit sand or water or something," the Raikkonen Robertson Racing driver said. "I went on the brakes into the Nissan chicane and the car just spun around really quickly. I didn't have too much brake bias to the rear or anything like that - it was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a shame to finish qualifying so early."

Senna was still comfortably the best placed of the drivers from the British series and while his off in qualifying meant he had a set of fresh tyres for the race, it proved to be a disadvantage for the race itself, when Senna had to settle for seventh, just ahead of fellow British F3 runner Oliver Jarvis.

"There was a peak of grip at the start of the race and then they just faded," he said. "I struggled with the balance and the car was oversteering a bit too much. That meant that I couldn't challenge Sebastian Vettel for sixth place. I had to back off to get the rear tyres to last the race, and from then on I had to be careful to finish ahead of Oliver Jarvis.

"It was a shame - maybe if we'd done a Euroseries race earlier in the year we would have got used to the Kumhos, but this was our only chance to learn about them. But it was a good race and I didn't make any mistakes, and I was happy to take my highest finish in any F3 international."

Senna now heads to Silverstone as the British F3 runners compete for the third consecutive weekend in the latest rounds of the championship season.