Arvid Lindblad making his move up into F3 this year following an impressive season last year in different races was able to stick a tricky move to take the first race win of the F3 2024 season.
Starting off the season with a race that provided battles from the top step of the podium surpassing the points positions all the way down to the back of the grid. The 2024 rookies have stepped up to show they are good contenders for the F3 2024 champion title this season already.
As it happened
With an ART front row lock out on the reverse grid positions from qualifying yesterday, Laurens Van Hoepen taking the pole position alongside his teammate Nikola Tsolov, proved while they are teammates they will battle to take all the points given. Van Hoepen was able to cover off his teammate to take the lead. It proved not his day for tomorrows pole sitter Dino Beganovic suffering from damage at the start alongside rookie Trident driver Santiago Ramos at turn 1.
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Both drivers suffered damage with Ramos going near to the back of the grid while Beganovic coming into the pits at the end of the first lap for repairs. Following that incident Beganovic was handed a 10 second penalty from the stewards.
ART were battling switching leads for the first 4 laps, this battle allowed Max Esterson close the gap and join in on the battle of the podium positions.
The third ART driver Christian Mansell was in his own battle with Sami Meguetounif on lap 5 to claim the seventh position on the grid. Similar to Esterson this allowed Luke Browning to get tow from the drivers to pull a move around the outside of both drivers at turn 4 to take seventh.
However the move was partially completed off track which resulted in a 10 second penalty which believed to be harsh according to the commentors and fans reaction.
Halfway through the sprint
Due to the battles at the front of the grid it lead to a 5 car fight with Lindblad and Fornaroli joining Esterson. Lindblad was able to pass the Jenzer driver to take 3rd and with the lost of the momentum Esterson on the first corner allowed Fornaroli to overtake on the corner exit.
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Lap after Lap up until lap 13 Lindblad was able to close the gap to the two ART drivers, van Hoepen went wide at turn 11 allowing the Red Bull junior driver to make through into second position chasing down the top spot with a few remaining laps on the board.
Within 2 laps later Lindblad was able to secure the race lead with the support of DRS in the first corner over Tsolov, however Tsolov fought close and was able to retake the lead on the run up to turn 4. Shortly after Lindblad was able to stick the second time around at the first turn to take the lead with little hope for Tsolov to fight back.
Similar to F2 Sprint Race Lindblad was able to break out of the DRS train and create a gap between his competitors to secure the top spot.
With 3 laps remaining van Hoepen was able to overtake his teammate to secure his maiden F3 podium, and coming into the last lap at turn 1 similar to Lindblad Fornaroli was able to overtake Tsolov to take the final podium position.
Chequered Flag
Arvid Lindblad on his first F3 season in a Red Bull livery for Prema the youngest driver on the grid was able to take the win starting from 4th, followed by another rookie of ART Laurens Van Hoepen, and rounding out the podium a pre season favourite for the championship Trident Leonardo Fornaroli takes third.
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Across the finish line Tsolov finished fourth, Tim Tramnitz managed to secure fifth, Gabriele Mini sixth, Esterson seventh, Mari Boya eight, Oliver Goethe ninth, and Sami Meguetounif rounding out the rest of the points.
Racing goes again tomorrow for the feature race with both front row drivers looking for redemption from the sprint Dino Beganovic takes pole alongside Luke Browning.