Josep Maria Martí took the chequered flag in the Bahrain sprint race, which saw two Safety Car interventions in the first seven laps.
Josep (Pepe) Maria Martí claimed his maiden win in the Bahrain F3 Sprint race, giving him an early lead in the Championship standings. Reverse-polesitter Franco Colapinto finished in second place, with Caio Collet in third.
Over half of the 30 cars on the Formula 3 grid have rookies at the wheel this season – 17 drivers were making their first start in the category.
At Lights Out:
Colapinto defended his top spot well at lights out, fending off Martí around the corner at turn one. Martí’s attempt at taking the lead left him vulnerable. He slipped back to third at turn two as Collet moved into second.
By the second lap, Colapinto had created a half-a-second lead from Collet. It was swiftly brought back to zero as the safety car was deployed following a collision. Rafael Villagómez found himself in the wall after battling Gabriel Bortoleto. Pitching the #18 Van Amersfoort Racing car into the wall, the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 2.
As racing resumed, Colapinto left the race restart to the very last minute. While Colapinto stayed clear out of turn one, Martí tried to put the pressure on Collet. He then found himself vulnerable to PREMA Racing rookie Paul Aron. Martí eventually managed to overtake Collet into Turn 4 to sit second.
Further down the pack, Luke Browning found himself out of the race on the restart after being clipped from behind, triggering the second Safety Car deployment.
Colapinto retained the lead from Martí on the restart but with DRS enabled, Martí was quick to put the pressure on the Williams junior driver. He made a move on the outside of turn 4 and began to speed away out of Colapinto’s reach.
Martí drove out of DRS range by the chequered flag securing first in Bahrain. Colapinto stayed second, with Collet in third ahead of F3 rookies Beganovich and Aron. Goethe finished in sixth, Saucy secured seventh for ART and Leonardo Fornaroli made the top eight. Edgar and Montoya fought to bring home the final points in ninth and 10th.
Martí says the win is a great start to the season;
“Well it was amazing. Last year I struggled a lot, especially with Quali and delivering good results in races. And I think over the winter me, Campos, all the guys, we’ve worked really hard and I think we put really a good package together. And obviously it showed yesterday with me being at the top. Obviously got my laps invalidated in Quali, which wasn’t great.
But yeah, apart from that just really, really happy coming across the line, seeing the chequered flag in first obviously was great, an amazing feeling and just hoping to do it more in the future.”
Tomorrow’s feature Race:
Gabriele Minì will start on pole for his first F3 Feature Race on Sunday, with fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto alongside him.