It was time for the F3 Sprint Race at the Belgian GP.
Brad Benavides had qualified on pole the day before for AIX Racing, ahead of Rafael Câmara and Callum Voisin. However, with the top 12 reversed for the sprint, Freddie Slater had started on pole for Hitech TGR, ahead of Noah Strømsted and Bruno del Pino.
All the drivers had got off the line and rounded the track, looking to get everything up to temperature ahead of the race start. The drivers had pulled into their grid boxes, with just moments remaining before the race got underway.
LIGHTS OUT!
It had been a clean start for Slater. The Hitech driver had kept ahead of Strømsted with a good getaway, whilst del Pino had managed to keep Wurz at bay for third place.
On lap two, Strømsted had another look at Slater going into Les Combes, but the Hitech driver had kept him behind. Wurz had managed to get ahead of del Pino, whilst Ugochukwu had overtaken Inthraphuvasak for fifth position.
Strømsted had used DRS to get ahead of Slater down the Kemmel Straight and had already pulled out a one-second gap at the front. By lap four, Ugochukwu had been flying and had once again used DRS down the Kemmel Straight, this time to overtake Wurz for third place.
Slater had found himself 1.1 seconds behind heading into the bus stop chicane. On lap five, Slater hadn’t had DRS down the Kemmel Straight, but fortunately neither had Ugochukwu behind him in third. Tsolov had been in eighth place, just ahead of Câmara, but had been stuck in a DRS train. At the front of that train had been Wurz in fourth, who had been 1.8 seconds behind Ugochukwu and had been coming under pressure from del Pino and Stenshorne.
Del Pino had gone from attacking to defending and had lost fifth place to Stenshorne down the Kemmel Straight. Slater had been 2.1 seconds behind Strømsted and had been coming under big pressure from Ugochukwu. On lap seven, the flying Ugochukwu had taken second place from Slater.
The final push
Lap nine saw Tsolov, Slater and Stenshorne running three wide into Eau Rouge, Tsolov ultimately coming out ahead. Tsolov found himself ahead of Câmara in P4, while Stenshorne and Slater dropped to P5 and P8 respectively.
On lap ten, Câmara made his move on Stenshorne, following closely on Tsolov’s tail. Boya received a 5s time penalty for track limits, while he was simultaneously under investigation following a collision with Benavides. Del Pino and Noel were shown the black and white flags, on their final warning for track limits.
The final lap of racing saw Slater become under investigation for track limits incidents. Tsolov began to close in on Wurz, looking to snatch Wurz’s first podium from him. The chequered flag waved, as Strømsted took his maiden win. Ugochukwu and Wurz followed in P2 and P3 respectively, taking their first podiums.
Théophile Naël penalised
Following the conclusion of the FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race at Spa-Francorchamps, the stewards handed Van Amersfoort Racing driver Théophile Naël a post-race penalty. They determined that the Frenchman exceeded track limits on four occasions, breaching Article 27.3 of the FIA Formula 3 Sporting Regulations.
As a result, officials applied a five-second time penalty to his race time, dropping him from 17th to 22nd in the final classification. The penalty promoted Callum Voisin, Tuukka Taponen, Brad Benavides, James Wharton, and Santiago Ramos each up one position.
F3 Belgian GP Sprint Race results
1 | Strømsted
2 | Ugochukwu
3 | Wurz
4 | Tsolov
5 | Câmara
6 | Inthraphuvasak
7 | Stenshorne
8 | Del Pino
9 | Badoer
10 | Slater
11 | Giusti
12 | Xie
13 | Tramnitz
14 | Bilinski
15 | Boya
16 | Leon
17 | Lacorte
18 | Voisin
19 | Taponen
20 | Benavides
21 | Naël
22 | Wharton
23 | Ramos
24 | Van Hoepen
25 | Hedley
26 | Domingues
27 | Sharp
28 | Marinangeli
29 | Ho
30 | DNF Zagazeta
Co-author: Olivia Pursehouse
