Oliver Goethe secured his first-ever F3 Feature race victory, leading the way for Trident as his teammate, Leonardo Fornaroli, finished in second.
Though initially it was Leonardo Formaroli that lead the race, the Trident teammates swapped positions midway through. Things got challenging for all drivers due to a late Safety Car deployment and the inevitable Silverstone rain. Josep María Martí of Campos Racing claimed another podium finish rounding out the top 3, in the Silverstone F3 Feature Race.
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Fornaroli defended his pole position and held onto the lead as they approached Turn 1. Meanwhile, Gabriel Bortoleto made an impressive move, advancing to fourth place by overtaking Christian Mansell on the outside at Turn 3. However, Paul Aron quickly surpassed them both at Brooklands, securing P4. Further up the field, Martí briefly overtook Goethe to snatch second place. Then Goethe executed a brilliant pass on the outside of Stowe to regain his position.
Safety Cars
Unfortunately for Hugh Barter, his race ended prematurely due to contact with Luke Browning at the final corner, causing suspension damage. This incident prompted the deployment of the Safety Car. Jonny Edgar’s weekend went from bad to worse with a DNF, thanks to contact on the first lap with Caio Collet. Collet subsequently had to make a pit stop for repairs, which ultimately dropped him to the back of the pack.
Racing resumed on Lap 7, with Fornaroli reestablishing his comfortable lead over Goethe. However, the reintroduction of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) meant that the top six drivers were separated by less than three seconds at the halfway point.
Gabriele Minì made his way into the lead group by utilizing DRS on the Hangar Straight. He then overtook Sprint race winner Franco Colapinto on Lap 11.
On Lap 15, Aron attempted to pass Martí around the outside at Stowe. However, he couldn’t complete the manoeuvre due to a lack of space and had to settle back into his position behind the Spaniard. Meanwhile, Goethe successfully overtook his teammate, taking the lead of the race.
Here comes the rain again
Rain began to fall on Lap 17, causing Robert Faria to veer off into the barriers at Woodcote. Fortunately, Faria emerged from the incident unharmed, but the Safety Car was deployed once again.
As the rain intensified, Tommy Smith was the only driver to switch to wet tyres with just three laps remaining, rejoining the race in 28th position.
The Safety Car withdrew on Lap 20, leaving Goethe in the lead on a treacherously slippery track.
Despite running on slick hard tires, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Collet made impressive progress, overtaking multiple drivers on the penultimate lap to secure a points position. Collet’s teammate Tommy Smith, skillfully exploited the conditions on wet tyres, leaping from 28th to 12th place in just over a lap.
“I think we had a great strategy, it was tough on the slick tyres, so I went in and changed them and the rain came down a bit heavier. It was a gamble at the time but we were able to get to P11, just outside the points.”
Tommy Smith Speaking to me after the race
And the F3 Feature Race winner is…
Goethe held on to clinch the victory ahead of teammate Fornaroli, with Martí claiming third place for Campos. Aron finished fourth, followed by Mansell and Botoleto. Minì, in seventh place, crossed the finish line shortly after his title rival, Colapinto, who had won the Sprint Race. Collet managed to climb up to ninth place, ahead of Grégoire Saucy, who denied Smith his first-ever F3 points by a mere tenth of a second in a thrilling sprint to the finish line.
In Goethe’s words: “I’m over the moon, to be honest. It was a really tricky race, and it started raining towards the end while we stayed on slicks. It was a scary one, but I’m extremely happy with the win here.”
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F3 Feature Race Silverstone