Sprint Race

Nikola Tsolov took his second victory of his Formula 3 career in Saturday’s Sprint at Spielberg. Pulling off a late-race overtake, the Bulgarian made it a 1-3 for ART Grand Prix with Christian Mansell, with Martinius Stenshorne taking second place on the rostrum.

With lights out at the start of the race, pole-sitter Stenshorne put on a brave defence to try and keep the place going into Turn 1, however Christian Mansell was able to get alongside and take the lead. Whilst Stenshorne tried to re-take the position going into Turn 3, he proceeded to run off the track, allowing Tsolov to take second position going into Turn 4, making it a one-two for ART before the first half of the lap was completed.

Dino Beganovic had a sketchy moment at Turn 1, with the PREMA driver spinning and falling from inside the top down to 25th. The first retirement of the race came from Kacper Sztuka who was collected by the Swedish driver and as a result was left stranded on the track. This incident saw the race neutralised by the Safety Car whilst Stzuka’s car was recovered by the marshals.

Lap 5 saw racing resumed, with Mansell being able to keep his lead. Luke Browning seemed to have a strong car in the Sprint race, going into Turn 4 three-wide and was able to pass Bedrin and Lindblad for 11th position – he originally started from 15th due to a grid penalty from qualifying the day before.

The race gave fans a new leader on Lap 7 after Tsolov was able to utilise DRS and get alongside his teammate Mansell going into Turn 4 and a move around the outside saw him pass the Australian to take P1.

On Lap 15, Mansell re-took the lead at Turn 3, after shadowing his teammate, however, this was short-lived as Tsolov immediately attacked again to take first going into Turn 4.

More contact came as a result of Sami Meguetounif and Arvid Lindblad, with the PREMA Racing rookie coming off worse with a puncture that dropped him out of the points fight.

Lap 17 came and was not short of drama  with the fight for first place still ongoing. Although earlier in the race Mansell was able to make a move on his teammate stick going into Turn 4, it was again reversed, with Tsolov passing the Australian to take the lead, and a slow exit out of the corner for Mansell gave an opportunity for Stenshorne to pass at Turn 5 to take second place.

On the same lap the second Safety Car of the race was called as a result of contact between Montoya and Dunne, with the former spinning at Turn 4. The Columbian was able to get out of the car and was OK, however the car needed to be the recovered.

The Safety Car period was a short-lived one, as it was withdrawn with one lap to go, allowing a one lap sprint to the line. Tsolov seemed to get an almost perfect restart to put distance between himself and the Hitech Pulse-Eight of Stenshorne to take his second Sprint Race victory of the year.

Mansell took the last step on the podium to give ART a double podium finish, while Dunne took fourth ahead of van Hoepen in fifth. Mini claimed sixth place ahead of Goethe, Tramnitz, Noel Leon and Sami Meguetounif who rounded out the points.

Feature Race

Luke Browning looked cool, calm and collected in Sunday’s Feature Race ti take his second Formula 3 win of the season. He was unbothered by race-long pressure from the PREMA Racing teammates of Gabriele Mini and Dino Beganovic, who saw an intense battle race-long for the final podium places.

Browning had a stellar launch off the line to take a clear lead going into the first corner, whilst all three PREMA teammates Lindblad, Mini and Beganovic occupied second through to fourth as Tim Tramnitz fell down the order to seventh. Lindblad and Mini’s battle on the exit of Turn 4 allowed Beganovic to cpaitalise on the entry into Turn 6 and take third position from the Italian driver. Another daring move down the inside on Lap 2 saw the Swedish driver take second place from his teammate going into Turn 3.

Beganovic’s pace seemed the best of the top two, as he began to close in on the leader on Lap 7, closing the gap between the two drivers from 0.9s to 0.5s. Lindblad on the other hand seemed to have the complete opposite of pace, as he was passed around the outside on Turn 4 by Mini for third. He dropped down the order even more on the next lap after a brief moment with Alex Dunne at Turn 3, whilst the MP Motorsport driver passed Goethe. Leon, Dunne and Goethe all then cleared the Briton going into Turn 4, leaving the PREMA driver in seventh. Stewards later investigated the incident between Lindblad and Browning, handing a 10-second penalty to the Irishman who they deemed at fault for the contact.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed on Lap 11 as a result of contact between the Campos of Mari Boya and AIX Racing’s Nikita Bedrin, with marshal’s needing to enter the track to retrieve the latter’s car.

Racing resumed, however a small touch between Goethe and Leon for fourth place resulted in a puncture for the Van Amersfoort Racing car of Leon, ending his charge for the podium and leaving him dropping rapidly down the grid.

Lap 24 saw an attempt by Mini to pass Beganovic for second going into Turn 3, however Mansell saw an opportunity and took third after a daring move around the outside of the Italian driver. It was short-lived, as Mini made his own brave pass to re-take the position going into Turn 6.

On the penultimate lap, the battle between the three PREMA Racing teammates allowed Browning to break out of DRS range of Beganovic who was under attack from Mini at Turn 4, with the Alpine Academy driver taking second place by Turn 6. Beganovic stayed within DRS range and on the last lap and re-passed his teammate going into Turn 3, only to be overtaken once again by Mini who went round the outside at Turn 5 and 6.

It was all too little too late though, as Hitech’s Browning earned his second victory of the season to retake his lead of the Drivers’ Championship. Mini took second place at the line ahead of his teammate Beganovic who rounded out the rostrum to make it a double podium for PREMA.

Mansell took fourth ahead of Goethe, Saturday’s Sprint winner Tsolov, Lindblad, van Hoepen and Fornaroli – who had an impressive drive from 24th. Dunne overcame his 10-second time penalty to take the final point of the race in P10.