Beganovic got a terrible start, tumbling down the order and allowing Browning into the lead for the first corner, with Maguetounif in 2nd and Tramnitz 3rd. Mansell was straight on the back of 4th place man Ramos over taking him on the first lap and beginning his attack on Tramnitz. Boya got a puncture after contact with Olli Goethe in 15th.

​Mini who had been desperate to pass Ramos for most of the race just couldn't get it done and ended the race defending more than attacking wit Fornaroli trying to make up places on the final lap of the race. 
Linblad finished in the points again finishing in 8th, meaning after his debut weekend in F3 he leaves 5th in the Championship. 

​Browning leads the Championship from Tramnitz is 2nd after scoring in both races, Mansell is 3rd & Fornaroli 4th all hoping to take the fight to browning next time out in Saudi.

1 BRO                     2 MAN +1.264
3 TRA +2.432          4 MEG +5.654
5 RAM +6.930         6 MIN +8.200
7 FOR +8.88           8 LIN +9.542
9 DUN +16.619      10 GOE + 17.032
11 TSO +18.076     12 LEO +19.451
13 BEG +20.021     14 STE +21.734
15 VAN +22.676     16 WUR +23.108
17 MON +23.679    18 ZAG +30.847
19 INT +34.409       20 BED +34.902
21 VOI +35.839       22 SMI +37.465
23 LOA +41.131      24 EST +42.347
25 WIS +52.341      26 SHI +53.921
27 DUF +59.979      28 SZT +63.836
29 BOYA +88.231    30 FLO  DNF

The 1st Sprint race of the year, in true Formula 3 style was a beautiful mess of racing from front to back. With 6 rookies  starting inside the top 10, 1 on pole and ART in the hunt for their first win since Barcelona 2022 the atmosphere was frenetic. 
1st Lap- Off the start it was ART team mates Tsolov and Van Hoepen who were first in turn 1, Van Hoepen had the lead on the exit of the 1st corner but Tsolov quickly took the lead back. Further back, Beganovic hit Ramos hard in the side causing him to spin as he(BEG) out breaked himself into turn 1(later he would get a 10 second penalty for the incident.) Beganovic  himself got a puncture in the incident hurting his race and putting him down to 22nd. Olli Goethe got himself up to 13th after the first lap, Forneroli had a good look up the inside of Linblad in turn 1, Tramnitz fell down the order after a tough first corner and Wurz over took Dunne. It was a crazy first lap and the field kept up that level of racing for the whole race. 

Every lap Van Hoepen made the move down the inside of Turn 1, taking the lead from team mate Tsolov who would then get the DRS down to turn 4 and retake the lead. He was relentless lap after lap but Van Hoepen just  couldn't keep the lead . Further back Goethe was moving forward confidently, Browning and Mansell were also gaining places and the fighting at the front was allowing 3 place man Esterson closer to the battle at the front.

From Lap 11 onwards the battle at the front had gone from 2  cars to 4 as Linblad and Fornaroli were with in a second of the lead car, as Van Hoepen was trying everything to get past team mate Tsolov, Fornaroli was mirroring his efforts to pass Linblad, but the fighting at the front only allowed Linblad into the fight for 1st and soon Van Hoepen was the one defending from the 3rd place man, Linblad was unable to get the move done. Until on lap 13 when Van Hoepen made a mistake into turn 11 and lost the rear mid corner making him run wide and letting  Linblad past, and only just managing to keep Fornaroli behind him. 

Mini was not done for the day, and on the last lap gave it everything to get past Esterson but after some absolutely mega racing between the 2 in the closing of the race and a photo finish across the line the young American Easterson held onto 6th place. Goethe got Browning in the final moments of the race and despite finishing in the top 10 after Browning's 10 second penalty was applied  he finished 15th. Montoya couldnt do better than 18th, Rookie and son of former F1 driver Alex Wurz, Charlie Wurz finished 19th on his F3 debut. 
But it was Rookie Linblad who stole the day winning his an F3 race on his first time of trying, but its hard to ignore the talent all the way down the grid. 19 laps of continuous racing with from 1st to 30th and there were only 2 minor incidents  that only required a momentary Yellow flag is a real testament to quality and talent we have in Formula 3 2024  

1 LIN            2 VAN
3 FOR          4 TSO
5 TRA           6 EST
7 MIN            8 BOY
9 GOE          10 MEG
11 STE         12 DUN
13 BED         14MAN
15 BRO(+10)16 INT
17 VOI           18 MON
19 WUR         20 SZT
21 RAM          22 LEO
23 FLO           24 DUF
25 WIS           26 SHI 
27 LOA           28 SMI
​29 BEG           30
​

It was a busy but short lived start to the session for the 13 returning drivers and 17 rookies, with all the cars coming out for at least 1 lap but then all returning to the Pitlane to do set up changes or a short de brief. It wasn't till there was just 23 minutes on the clock that we saw the field come back out onto the track lead by Sheild. Running was calm and all the drivers seemed to be getting a solid practice session in until with 12 minutes to go Gabrieli Mini brought out yellow flags, before they were escalated to a Red flag to recover his car. It seemed to be a car issue rather than a driver error that sent the 2nd year Veteran of F3 backwards into the gravel trap.

Running began again with under 10 minutes left of the first Practice session of the year and all the cars took to the track to get their Qualifying simulations in before this afternoons shoot out. 
​

Fornaroli was top of the times until Luke Browning beat his time by 3 tenths. Olli Goethe set a great time to put himself into the top 5 but his time and the time of Sophia Floresch (14th) were deleted meaning they ended the session 29th & 30th. Seb Montoya could only manage 25th, Beganovich put his car in 3rd and new comer to F3 and son of F1 driver Alex Wurz, Charlie Wurz had a great first session to put his car in 6th. 
All in all unless you are Mini it was a good session and we looked forward to the 1st Qualifying of the season. 

1 BRO       2 FOR
3 BEG       4 TSO
5 RAM       6 WUR
7 VAN       8 MEG
9 LEO      10 MAN 
11 LIN      12 TRA
13 ZAG    14 VOI
15 EST     16 BOY
17 DUN    18 STE
19 SMI      20 LOA
21 DUF     22 SWT
23 WIS      24 INT
25 MON    26 BEP
27 SHI       28 MIN
​29 FLO      30 GOE

fDespite a flurry of cars leaving the pits as soon as the lights went green many of the car dived back into the pits for car issues like |Ollie Goethe who car turned off and back on over a curb and others for set up changes. Fornerolli went top 1st but was quickly beaten by Rookie Esterson. Geothe came back out for another run but the car was still off the pace which we know Olli is not. After everyone set their banker times we saw them all return to the pits to prepare for their final Qualigying runs.  

16 minutes on the clock and we saw the whole grid come out together and with all 30 cars on track going for their 1st attack lap. 
Montoya's lock up at turn 8 hurt his lap and put him 14th when he crossed the line, Mansell could only manage 2nd to Boya who topped the times till Fornaroli took it from him in his Trident car, Beganovic going 2nd fastest as we started to see laps being deleted for Sophia Florsch, Esterson and many others. After the 1st push runs the top 3 was Forneroli, Beganovic & Meguetounif.

© FIA Formula 3 

1 BEG        2 BRO
3 MIN         4 MEG
5 RAM        6 FOR
7  TRA        8 MAN
9  LIN        10 EST
11 TSO      12 VAN
13 LEO      14 DUN
15 BOY      16 WUR
17 GOE     18 BED
19 VOI        20 ZAG
 21 LOA      22 STE
23 INT         24 SZT
25 FLO        26 DUF 
27 SMI         28 WIS
​29 MON       30 SHI