Red Bull Ring F3: Vesti wins truncated feature race

Reigning Formula Regional European champion Frederik Vesti dominated the first FIA Formula 3 Championship race of the weekend, which was prematurely ended just after half distance.

An increasingly wet Red Bull Ring meant the race was red flagged and not restarted with 10 laps to go.

18-year-old Danish ace Vesti maintained his race lead from his first F3 pole position on the opening lap, while Trident’s Lirim Zendeli had charged from sixth on the grid to second by Turn 1.

Zendeli pressured Prema’s Vesti on the run to Turn 3 on the first lap, but Vesti resisted and remained relatively unchallenged for the remainder of the race.

The first incident in the rain-soaked race came when Formula Renault Eurocup graduate Aleksandr Smolyar spun on the exit of the final lap and brought out the virtual safety car on the fourth lap of the race.

His ART Grand Prix-run car was recovered and the race resumed, only for a full safety car to be required three laps later when Carlin’s Clement Novalak picked up a rear-left puncture and was left facing backwards at the last corner.

Novalak was able to drive back to the pits and the race had two more laps of green flag running before the safety car was required once more.

16-year-old Roman Stanek was beached in the gravel at the penultimate corner while ART’s Sebastian Fernandez was sent spinning into the barriers a few moments later after contact with Enaam Ahmed (Carlin).

The race was red-flagged while under this third safety car period due to the worsening weather conditions and the results were counted from half distance.

This meant series rookie Vesti earned his maiden FIA F3 victory and Zendeli claimed his first-ever podium in the series.

David Beckmann took his first podium in the championship since it was rebranded from GP3, while his Trident teammate Olli Caldwell completed the top four.

Caldwell was able to pass last weekend’s race one victor Oscar Piastri (Prema) at the final restart to demote the 2019 Eurocup champion to fifth place.

MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor battled from 11th on the grid to finish in sixth place, ahead of Prema’s Logan Sargeant and last Sunday’s sprint race winner Liam Lawson.

Reigning German Formula 4 champion Theo Pourchaire earned his first points in the series in ninth place with HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes claiming the final point and reverse-grid pole for tomorrow’s race.

F3 Red Bull Ring – feature race results:

Cla#DriverTeamGap
12 Frederik Vesti Prema Powerteam 
210 Lirim Zendeli Trident 2.000
311 David Beckmann Trident 3.900
412 Olli Caldwell Trident 4.700
51 Oscar Piastri Prema Powerteam 5.000
617 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 6.800
73 Logan Sargeant Prema Powerteam 6.900
85 Liam Lawson HitechGP 7.700
97 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 8.600
1015 Jake Hughes HWA AG 9.600
1129 Alexander Peroni Campos Racing 11.000
1225 David Schumacher Charouz Racing System 11.600
134 Max Fewtrell HitechGP 12.500
149 Sebastian Fernandez ART Grand Prix 12.600
1514 Enzo Fittipaldi HWA AG 13.700
1619 Lukas Dunner MP Motorsport 14.000
1727 Enaam Ahmed Carlin 15.200
1818 Bent Viscaal MP Motorsport 16.600
1931 Sophia Flörsch Campos Racing 17.500
206 Dennis Hauger HitechGP 17.800
2116 Jack Doohan HWA AG 18.100
2222 Matteo Nannini Jenzer Motorsport 19.200
2324 Igor Fraga Charouz Racing System 19.900
2428 Cameron Das Carlin 21.100
2520 Calan Williams Jenzer Motorsport 21.600
2630 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing 22.800
2721 Federico Malvestiti Jenzer Motorsport 23.700
2823 Roman Staněk Charouz Racing System 
2926 Clement Novalak Carlin 
308 Alexander Smolyar ART Grand Prix 

 

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