Gabriel Bortoleto led the Melbourne F3 Feature Race through two Safety Cars to make it two out of two Feature Race victories this season. The Trident driver led every lap of the race; Grégoire Saucy finished second, 0.5s off of Bortoleto with Gabriele Minì in third.

Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto has made it two-for-two Feature Race wins this season after leading every lap in the Melbourne F3 Feature Race. Bortoleto continued to lead the pack even amidst two Safety Cars, as Saucy and Minì finished second and third respectively.

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At Lights Out

Bortoleto had a great start at lights out at the F3 Melbourne Feature Race, covering off any threats going into the first corner. The top five drivers remained in their starting positions. Sebastián Montoya and Christian Mansell made contact into turn 11 leaving the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver out of the race.

As the second lap got underway Franco Colapinto took seventh from Luke Browning on the run to turn three. However, he quickly found himself in trouble and crashed out of the race on lap five. The MP Motorsport driver had made contact with Browning trying to make the move in earlier laps and the puncture he sustained ultimately sent him into the barrier.

Mari Boya also found himself out of the race on lap five. Contact between Boya and Nikola Tsolov send him speeding into the gravel and out of the race. The Safety Car was deployed, but yet another driver found himself out of the race before the Safety Car returned to the pits. Kaylen Frederick had made contact with Tsolov and was out on lap five.

As racing got back underway on lap six, Bortoleto successfully held off his rivals, but had Saucy nipping at his heels behind, helped by DRS. Browning snatched sixth place from Paul Aron with DRS assistance into turn one on lap ten.

Martí Charges Through

Meanwhile further down the pack, Josep María Martí charged from 30th to 21st on the first lap alone. By lap ten, he was locked in a battle for 12th with Campos Racing teammate Mansell. Martí successfully took 12th after Mansell was left vulnerable in a bid to overtake Trident’s Oliver Goethe.

The Safety Car was deployed once more on lap 13 after contact between Ido Cohen and Rafael Villagomez out of turn four. The contact spun Cohen into the barriers and left Villagomez with a ten-second time penalty.

As the Safety Car retired to the pits again on lap 16, Martí was climbing the standings once again. He cleared Goethe into turn four to take 11th, then took tenth from Jonny Edgar on lap 18. 

At The Chequered Flag

Saucy was still on Bortoleto’s tail, setting the fastest lap on lap 17. He was within half a second of the lead with three laps to go. However, this wouldn’t be enough to take the victory in Melbourne. He successfully made it to the chequered flag in second place.

Miní successfully held onto third, fending off Leonardo Fornaroli who finished fourth to put two Tridents in the top five.

Zak O’Sullivan crossed the line fifth ahead of Browning, Aron in seventh. Dino Beganovic and Caio Collet found themselves with damage three corners from home after contact. However Beganovic was able to limp home to P8 ahead of Martí before a post-race penalty dropped the PREMA driver out of the points. Collet dropped to 16th. Taylor Barnard completed the top ten, taking his first point in F3.

Bortoleto is ecstatic with the result;

“P1 in the Feature Race today, very very happy. It was a tough race, Grégoire was quick behind me. I had to do a race without many mistakes. We have done it, the car was great and thank you to everyone supporting me this weekend.”

Image Courtesy of: Joe Portlock – Formula 1 / Contributor

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