Noel Léon wins the F3 Sprint Race in Imola!
The previous day saw Trident sweep the top three, with Santiago Ramos leading Leonardo Fornaroli and Sami Meguetounif.
MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne was disqualified from the Formula 3 Imola Qualifying results. The #9 MP Motorsport car was flagged to the Stewards after a post-session technical inspection revealed a potential breach of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Technical Regulations.
Following a review with the driver and team representative, it was determined that Car #9 violated Article 1.4 of the Technical Regulations concerning the non-conformity of the front anti-roll bar links.
Consequently, Dunne was removed from the Imola Qualifying session results. Originally qualifying in fifth position, his disqualification promoted those behind him up one place each.
MP Motorsport’s Kacper Sztuka started the Sprint Race on reverse grid pole position, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León alongside him in second.
León took the lead at the start, beating pole sitter Kacper Sztuka off the line, and was followed through by Tim Tramnitz and Oliver Goethe.
The first safety car of the race came after Mari Boya spun into the gravel trap at the Villeneuve chicane after colliding with Tommy Smith.
Soon after the restart, Charlie Wurz and Callum Voisin crashed at Tosa, before a third safety car was called after Sami Megatounif touched the back of Dino Beganovic’s car, sending him into the gravel.
The fourth safety car was called on lap 13 because of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, pulled off track at Rivazza.
With two laps to go, Beganovic passed Sztuka, but as his championship rival Luke Browning attempted to follow him through, but instead broke his front wing and ended up in the gravel, bringing out the Virtual Safety Car.
It was then withdrawn on the final lap and Oliver Goethe caught León napping to cross the line first but was penalised for a safety car infringement and dropped to second and giving León the win.
Tim Tramnitz rounded out the podium ahead of Beganovic, Sztuka Mini, Van Hoepen, Lindblad and Bedrin with tomorrow’s pole sitter Santiago Ramos completing the top 10.
León is happy with the win despite the confusion;
“Super happy with the win. At the end it was a little bit tricky with Ollie, but we managed things quite well, had a good start and then managed from there. Really happy, thank you to the team for an amazing car and let’s hope tomorrow that we can finish in the points.”
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