After his qualifying time was deleted yesterday that would’ve seen Paul Aron on pole for Sunday’s Feature race, he makes a comeback by winning the F3 sprint race in Austria amidst the safety cars, and wheel to wheel battling.
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At Lights Out
It was meant to be a Safety car start procedures to start the first race of the weekend in Austria, due to continuous rain overnight and into the early morning. However once on the formation lap the FIA decided to have a standing start due to the track drying quickly. Unknown to the drivers until mid formation lap Paul Aron in the press conference said he was “smirking behind the wheel as he was able to have a practice start on the formation lap to understand the track conditions.”
When lights went out Oliver Goethe couldn’t move off the line, fortunately all drivers behind him was able to make quick reactions to avoid the driver, once the car was able to start again he was down to 27th.
Marti retained his lead of the line and Aron was flying to third by the end of the first lap.
Aron was able to clear Kaylen Frederick in the ART for P2 on Lap 8 and looking to close in to Martí, who’d built up over a 3.5s lead from the rest of the grid. Aron the Mercedes Junior driver was about to close in top position driver by taking four tenths out.
Mid Race Safety Car
The Safety Car was deployed on Lap 11 following contact between Oliver Gray and Rafael Villagómez at
Turn 4. Villagomez spun around following contact with Oliver Gray. Gray clipped his wheels to Villagomez as he was trying to resume the race however suffered race ended damage.
Racing resumed on Lap 14 and Martí put a small gap between himself and Aron at the
restart. O’Sullivan moved himself into the top five on Lap 16, by diving to the inside of Frederick up the hill at Turn 3.
Aron was able to get close to Martí gradually lap after lap following the restart and on Lap 18. Coming into Turn 3 he was able to overtake to take the lead while also defending from Minì in the process, who’d put them all three-wide entering that corner.
Caio Collet went on the inside of Marti at the final corner on the penultimate lap to move himself onto the last step of the podium. Zak O’Sullivan capitalized on Marti’s lost momentum to pass to take fourth from the Campos driver. Edgar as well was able to take fifth at Turn 5 from Marti.
F3 will be back tomorrow for the full points feature race with Gregoire Saucy starting from pole after claiming his maiden F3 pole on Friday.