Just like Formula 1 and Formula 2, Formula 3 is also back with a triple header to finish the 2022 FIA World Formula 3 Championship season. This week we headed to Spa Francorchamps to start the end of the championship with top 2 drivers coming into the weekend with equal points of 104. Missed all the action? Read below for a run down from free practice all the way to Sunday’s feature race and there was a lot of action taking place.
Free Practice
It seemed one driver top the table without any competition, Van Amersfoort Racing driver Reece Ushijima proved to be in a class of one in Spa free practice on Friday. His time of 2:05:172s led him to finish over a second clear of the following drivers which happened to be a 2-3-4 for Campos Racing.
Around the cool temperature track and slight drizzle of rain drivers made their way around the longest track in the calendar and the highest amount of elevation change of the season. Jenzer Motorsport William Alatalo was the first driver with a time on the board with a 2:09.590s but was passed by Carlin driver Brad Benavides with a 2:09.421.
With drivers making times onto the table, and less than 30 minutes left of the session, one of the two title contenders Victor Martins came with a time of 2:07.381s to top P1 at the time. MP motorsport and PREMA drivers were battling it out for the top positions after Martins. Then at one point it was a Trident 1-2-3 all within a tenth of each other, but Prema Oliver Bearman came and set the fastest of 2:06.798.
Tridents Roman Stanek brought out brief yellow flags with 10 minutes remaining after coming to a halt in the Kemmel Straight. Leading to the last 5 minutes other title contender Isack Hadjar took the top spot with a time of 2:06.639s.
Campos came to try and take the top spot with Oliver Goethe going fastest 0.4s clear.
But in the end Reece smashed Goethe time with a time of 2:05.172s well over a second below.
Following it Josep Maria Marti help making it a Campos 2-3-4 at the checked flag with no contention to an astonishing time made by Reece.
Qualifying
It was maiden pole for the Brazilian of Caio Collet successfully driving in the wet to dry conditions, thus making him the seventh driver to take pole in this season. However compared to free practice there was many drivers close in contention for that top spot.
With heavy rain in-between practice and qualifying it was no surprise that all drivers came out on the full wet tyres and from the start was full of action. Starting off early Oliver Bearman topped the timetable with a 2:22.931s, 0.159s ahead of his PREMA teammate Arthur Leclerc. Shortly afterwards the session came to a stop with Jak Crawford at 19 minutes on the clock found himself facing the wrong way on the track, in an attempt to spin around and continue on he was caught out by the gravel trap ending his chances early.
Once the light went green we saw nine driver chance with the switch back onto the slicks including title contender Isack Hadjar going onto the medium compound. And it paid off clocking a time 4.2s faster than Bearman’s time on the wets.
With less than 10 minutes remain there was a serious battle for the pole position, Martins, Collet, Alatalo and Bearman traded turns in the P1 spot, before Alexander Smolyar snatched provisional pole with a 2:15.121, over three tenths clear of Stanek. Not content with P2, the Trident driver sent it to leapfrog Smolyar by over a second. Out front, Stanek became the first driver to break into the 2:12 barrier and showed no signs of slowing down, but with an ever-drying track, it would be a fight to be the last driver to cross the line that would decide who would start on the front row. Even the appearance of the chequered flag didn’t mean that the order was final. Maloney leaped half a second clear of his teammate but there was nothing he could do to stop Collet’s final effort of 2:11.289, which sent the Brazilian straight into P1 to seal back-to-back poles for his MP team, and forced the Bajan driver to settle for second. Pizzi took a his chance and was able to jump positions to secure the P3 spot on the grid, Goethe moved to fourth ahead of Stanek, and all three Trident drivers finishing in the top 6 as Johnny Edgar finished above Smolyar.
Sprint Race
With a reverse grid for the sprint saw Zak O’Sullivan retaining his lead from pole into La Source with teammate Brad Benavides attempting to get around p2 driver Juan Manuel Correa. With the power on the Kemmel straight the ART driver was able to take a lead but only for a short time period. While this was going on down the line Franco Colapinto was put into a spin by Jonny Edgar and was given a 5 second penalty for this. Benavides was able to pass his team due to front wing damage on O’Sullivan car which had him drop down the order.
Lap 3 saw a safety car deployed as Charouz Racing driver Christian Mansell ended up in the barriers at Les Combes, however just before the safety car was deploy Hadjar pulled a masterclass move on Bearman going side by side through Eau Rouge to take the 18th position.
Other title contender Victor Martins meanwhile had made his way up to 16th by the time the Safety Car was deployed but had jumped the start. He was handed a drive-through penalty as a result. Arthur Leclerc
meanwhile kept out of trouble to reach 13th.
Safety car ended on lap 5 and Edgar took advantage to move to second while Bearman was increasing his gap ahead from other drivers.
A wide moment from Oliver Goethe heading into Stavelot left the Campos Racing driver under pressure from the Trident duo of Roman Stanek and Zane Maloney. Stanek was able to clear the Monégasque driver for fifth but contact on the exit of Blanchimont between Goethe and Maloney resulted in a big crash for the pair. Both drivers were thankfully able to walk away from their cars. As barrier repairs were required, a Red Flag was thrown on Lap 8.
Bearman led from Edgar at the restart with Benavides, Smolyar, Stanek, William Alatalo, Reece
Ushijima, David Vidales, Caio Collet and Leclerc the top 10. Racing resumed with a rolling start
entering Lap 10 and the leader aced his launch while Alatalo ran wide out of La Source, dropping him
down to 10th. The Monégasque in the PREMA wasn’t done, and he seized eighth from Collet into the
final corner.
These battles continued throughout the race, Smolyar, Benavides, Edgar, Stanek, Ushijima, Vidales all fighting to gain positions on the track.
Entering the final lap Alatalo made a great late move on Vidales to surprise the Campos man and
seize seventh. That soon became sixth with DRS assistance and Hadjar pulled another move into Les
Combes, this time at the expense of Collet.
Bearman was untroubled for most of the race and ended up 1.3s clear at the chequered flag to take a
crucial victory in the 2022 title race. Stanek kept Trident on the podium with a P2 finish while Smolyar
secured third for MP Motorsport. Edgar’s time penalty dropped him down to fourth position. Leclerc’s charge ended up with P5 while Alatalo put in a great drive to take sixth. Vidales, Benavides, Hadjar and Collet rounded out the points-paying positions.
Feature Race
Redemption for the boy from Barbados after a terrifying crash on Saturday’s sprint race was able to turn it around and take the top spot, his first F3 Race win of his rookie season.
With a 7th different pole position, Collet lined up the grid front row alongside Maloney with a surprise that four of the top 5 championship contenders all starting P20 or lower.
Lights went out, and all drivers got away cleanly, however Maloney was pushing from the start as the Trident tried to dive down the outside of Collet at Les Combes, tapping wheels the Bajan driver took a trip over the kerbs and rejoined from the runoff in the lead. Their duel left third-placed Pizzi with nowhere to go and the Charouz Racing System driver took avoiding action through the gravel, dropping down the order.
However Maloney’s lead was short lived as he had to give back the position but it was too late as Geother overtook Collet for P2 before Maloney could give back thus seeing the Trident driver go from first to 3rd.
Disaster soon struck for title contender Martins. The ART Grand Prix driver found himself collected
in chaos ahead as Kush Maini overshot the corner sending him into the side of Pizzi, tagging Ido
Cohen and Martins. The contact forced the Frenchman to pull over into retirement at
Radillion, bringing out the first Safety Car appearance of the day.
Racing went back underway on lap 5, Collet flew past Goethe on his second F3 weekend to take the top spot. But
No sooner than the action resumed did the Safety Car return to the track after Grégoire Saucy and
Josep María Martí touched wheels, resulting in the early retirement of a second ART car. This left the
job up to leader Collet when the green flags were waved on Lap 10. Opting to go early on the restart
couldn’t stop Maloney from pulling himself through into the front of the field around the outside of
Les Combes
Having been handed a five second penalty for rejoining the track unsafely, Collet knew it was time to
be strategic as he battled with Stanek for second. It wasn’t long before he found his way through on the Brazilian, who decided not to put up too much of a fight.
Just behind the leading trio, there was a three-car battle unfolding for the final spot on the podium as
Bearman eventually found his way through on Edgar and set out to close the gap to Goethe for
provisional third.
As the penultimate lap began, it was Bearman’s time to strike as Goethe went too deep into Turn 1.
The pair flew up side-by-side into Eau Rouge, but the Prema Racing driver cautiously decided to back
out and go again one lap later. With the advantage of DRS this time around, the Ferrari Academy
junior sailed past Goethe to claim his second podium of the weekend
But this race was all about Zane Maloney who came across the chequered flag over a second clear from his teammate, and the gap to third was over 5.5s of Bearman. Maloney also took fastest lap thus an extra point.
Further down the field title contender Arthur Leclerc crossed the line P11 thus not receiving points, as well as Isack Hadjar in P14 and Jak Crawford P20 both not receiving points either alongside DNF Victor Martins, and Gregoire Saucy.
Standings as it is
With many title contenders not receiving points it allowed lower position drivers to make up spots to fight with only 4 races (2 weekends) to go. Bearman’s double podium allowed him to jump up to second with 105 points, one point off leader Isack Hadjar. Only 5 points separate the top four really shows its anyone’s championship and will go down to the last race on Sunday Sept 11th on the Monza circuit. Victor Martins and Arthur Leclerc dropping down a place each, as Roman Stanek’s third podium of the season has reignited his hopes in fifth on 96.
So what’s next?
We are ending the 2022 FIA World Formula 3 championship with a triple header we go back to racing at Zandvoort this weekend so stay tune will top drivers improve and create more of a gap or will someone out of the top 5 come in and steal the crucial points moving up the leaderboard, stay tuned to find out!