Williams academy driver Luke Browning takes the victory in Austria and takes the championship lead after dominating round the track, staying out of grips from the fights behind him that saw Gabriele Mini come out on top against Dino Beganovic and Christian Mansell.

Tack temperature was much cooler today at 27 degrees celcius compared to yesterdays sprint race.

Championship contender Luke Browning started on pole in Spielberg followed by rival and last weekends race winner Arvid Lindblad and after a 10 minute delay lights out and Browning gets the best start he could hope for. Flying towards to first turn Lindblad is left behind to find Mini.

Fornaroli, whos only leading the championship by 5 points is, down in 24th as he manages to gain a couple spaces in the first lap to move from 24th to 22nd, however it's Leon, 13th to 6th, who had the best start as he flying into the points position.

Sabastian Montoya retires his Campos as under investigation along Tamnitz for causing a collision, the MP Motorsport driver later getting a 10+ second penalty. Elsewhere another investigation is picked up between Dunne who made rear contact with Lindblad causing him to drop out the podium fight to 7th. 

Bedrin spins off after contact with Boya, unable to restart his car a virtual safety car is in play as he's removed from the track.

The green flag is waved as we head into the half way mark of the feature race but its disaster for leon as a puncture sends him tumble down the order to 24th after an incredible driver that saw him gain 9 positions.

Six laps to go and Fornaroli is now up to 12th on track for that vital points finish after getting past Floersch who's looking for her second points finish of her career and his teammate Sami Meguetounif. 

One lap to go Mini with better tyre management goes up the inside of Beganovic to start a battle for second. Mansell attempts to get involved but can't quite make the moves. the battle for second continuing well into the final lap but its Mini that comes out on top. with this battle going on, Browning is left to take the chequered flag and win the Austrian grand prix!

Christian Mansell not quite making it to the podium finished in fourth a head of Goethe who continues his points finish streak. Yesterdays sprinter winner Nikola Tsolov in sixth followed by Lindblad in 7th and Van Hoepen in 8th. 

​An excellent drive from Fornaroli  who took his Trident from 24th to finish 9th in front of Dunne who managed to hold onto that final points position after his penalty for contact with Lindblad.

POINTS FINISHERS
 1 L.BROWNING        1:26.534
 2 G.MINI                    +1.6
 3 D.BEGNOVIC         +0.4
 4 C.MANSELL           ​+0.4
 5 O.GEOTHE            ​+0.6
 6 N.TSOLOV             ​+3.9
 7 A.LINDBLAD           +0.7
 8 L. VAN HOEPEN    +2.1
 9 L.FORNAROLI        +0.3
 10 A.DUNNE              +3.1

Bronwen Jones

Nikola Tsolov takes the sprint Victory in Austria, for his second win of the year after a three way battle against Martinius Stenshorne and ART teammate Christian Mansell.

​Luke Browning just out of reach of points today as he crossed the line in 11th, after receiving a three place grid penalty from impeding Prema driver Dino Beganovic, to start 15th in todays sprint. However starting on pole tomorrow can he re take the championship lead with Fornaroli works his way up for 24th.

The green flag was waved as the Mansell led the field into lap 5, followed by Tsolov, Stenshorne and Dunne. With DRS shortly enabled by lap 7 Tsolov had taken the lead, running round the outside of turn 3 to overtake Mansell.

Mean while Browning was also making his own moves as he was climbing towards a points finish after starting 15th. With just five points separating the Brit from the championship leader every points is vital. After a disappointing qualifying that left him 24th on the grid, Fornaroli is seen battling for position against Bedrin to take 14th, with just over have the Sprint to go.

Just passing the half way lap Tsolov was holding off his ART teammate as Mansell attempted to dive up the inside of turn 3 to take the lead but only sniffed the lead re take as Tsolov was back in front by turn 4. 
​

RESULTS
TOP 10 

1 N.TSOLOV                    34:24.710
2 M.STENSHORNE         +0.673
3 C.MANSELL                  +1.244
4 A.DUNNE                      +1.647
5 L. VAN HOEPE             +3.168
6 G.MINI                           +3.496
7 O.GOETHE                   +3.751
8 T.TRAMNITZ                 +4.053
9 N.LEON                         +4.498
10 S.MEGUETOUNIF      +4.886

Bronwen Jones

Prema's Gabriele Mini was the first on provisional pole after all 30 cars had taken on their first flying laps, following a popular three lap warm up to get the soft tyres to the desired temperatures as the track temp had increased to 40 Degrees Celsius.

As the drivers get deeper into qualifying the field got more competitive with several drivers improving on their second flying laps, with four contestants moving into the 1:20s. Mini, however, retained the top spot with a 1:20.869, while Leon was just five milliseconds behind the Italian with 20 minutes remaining in Qualifying.

Half way through the session Leon tops the timings with 1:20.804, after stepping on the accelerator following a cool down lap, before joining the rest of the field in the pitlane to change tyres. Practice session leader Wurz down in 14th. 

Bronwen Jones
​Writer @ F1 Journal

Prema Racing's Arvid Lindblad showed great class out on the circuit to win Formula 3's landmark 100th race, in the feature race on Sunday in Barcelona.

Lindblad controlled the pace out front in a dominant drive from the Red Bull junior driver as he passed pole sitter Christian Mansell on lap 5 for the race lead.

Mansell would finish in second as Leonardo Fornaroli made a last lap pass on championship rival Luke Browning for third. Browning would finish fifth behind Oliver Goethe.

Leonardo Fornaroli, with the third place podium result, is now the championship leader heading into the next round in Austria. He took it from Gabriele Mini who finished 21st.

It was time for the feature race in FIA Formula 3 and it would be a landmark race in the championship with it being race 100 in the championship's history - taking place at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya where it all started in 2019.

Mari Boya, on home soil, would take victory in Saturday's sprint race after finishing behind the safety car. He inherited the lead after the two Trident cars, Santiago Ramos and Sami Meguetounif came together.

Meguetounif retired from the race and was handed a grid penalty for the event. He would not be on his own with a grid penalty as Nikita Bedrin would also be handed one for the sprint race collision with British driver Callum Voisin.

Christian Mansell would start on pole position for race 100 after a great lap in Friday qualifying. There would be two ART drivers in the top three with Nikola Tsolov third. Mansell would be joined by Arvid Lindblad on the front row.

All 30 cars on the grid and the race 100 was underway with a good start from Chrstian Mansell who maintained the lead after Arvid Lindblad thought about a move. At the race start the top three maintained positions as there was battle ongoing throughout the field.

Onto just the second lap as a few of the drivers were hoping to gain some places and deliver a good result and Sebastian Montoya was hoping to try and make up places like he did on Saturday after the start of the race  and he was up to 22nd on lap 3.

An incident at the race start between Martinius Stenshorne and Oliver Goethe that was originally noted by Race Control. However, the Stewards quickly decided no further investigation was required.

Start of lap 5 and Lindblad made a super move for the lead of the race into turn 1 and made use of the DRS advantage to get by Christian Mansell. Meanwhile, Luke Browning also made a move for third on the ART of NIkola Tsolov.

Two ART drivers losing a position on the same lap with the top three now being Lindblad, Mansell and Browning with Tsolov down to fourth.

Sophia Floersch made a move for 22nd in her Van Amersfoort on the Hitech of Cian Shields. A move into turn 1 and making good use of the DRS advantage.

Onto lap 10 and Charlie Wurz was up into the 20th after passing Joseph Loake. Loake was then vulnerable to attack from Floersch. Loake managed to hold position for another lap at least. 

Floersch however would soon be vulnerable to attack and would be overtaken by the AIX Racing car of Joshua Dufek. Dufek passed Floersch for 22nd in a good move by the Austrian driver.

Campos' Oliver Goethe had moved up a position. He made a move for sixth place on the ART of Laurens Van Hoepen, who would be under pressure once again soon after by the Hitech McLaren junior of Martinius Stenshorne for eighth.

A pass by Josh Dufek on Joseph Loake through turn 3 with Dufek getting up into 21st with Loake running wide as the Rodin driver was struggling for grip. Floersch and Cian Shields would also get ahead of Loake, who was down to 24th.

Lap 22 and the gap was to over five seconds between the front two. Lindblad in a comfy position ahead of Mansell.

On the same lap, after persistent trying, Leonardo Fornaroli went for a pass for fourth on Nikola Tsolov and had finally got ahead of the Bulgarian. On the following lap and Tsolov was then passed by Goethe.

Nikita Bedrin and Kacper Sztuka were battling into turn 1 with Sztuka trying to get ahead of the AIX Racing car of Bedrin. Sztuka however locked up and under-steered into the side of Bedrin with both being able to continue round the track.

Bedrin would retire while the incident would be investigated by the Stewards.

Penultimate lap and Tsolov was under pressure from Van Hoepen but the Dutchman was unable to make the move and was under pressure from Stenshorne but the two came together and giving Van Hoepen a puncture and sending him down the order. race ruined for the ART driver. Stenshorne on the following lap would suffer a puncture from the incident too.

Leonardo Fornaroli had closed right up to Luke Browning, so too had Oliver Goethe in a battle for third and on the final lap into turn 1 a move from Fornaroli that was made to stick in turn 3 put Fornaroli into third and the provisional championship lead if he could finish there.

Matters got worse for Browning as Goethe then capitalised. The Williams Academy driver was demoted to fifth with the Red Bull Academy liveried Campos of Goethe up into fourth.

Out front however, it was a fantastic drive from British talent Arvid Lindblad. The 16-year old dominated out in front since taking the lead from Christian Mansell. He won race 100 in Formula 3 for Prema, who won the first Formula 3 race with Robert Shwartzman in 2019.

He took the flag with a comfy margin ahead of Christian Mansell who started from the front of the field and came home in second. Leonardo Fornaroli took third on the final lap and takes the championship lead off Gabriele Mini his fellow countryman.

Oliver Goethe came home in fourth for Campos with Luke Browning in the Hitech rounding off the top five.

Nikola Tsolov was sixth for ART ahead of the Mclaren junior Alex Dunne in seventh for MP Motorsport. Mari Boya, Dino Beganovic and Noel Leon completed the top 10.

Gabriele Mini who had the championship lead coming into the round now leaves the round in third overall, behind Fornaroli and Browning.

A true fantastic weekend of Formula 3 action at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya. A weekend where a historic landmark was reached in the championship. Mari Boya on Saturday followed in the footsteps of David Vidales and Pepe Marti in winning at their home event in Barcelona in Formula 3.

Whereas in the feature race, Arvid Lindblad showed a cool and composed head even when the weather started to throw a bit of rain in the final sector. With victory, he has pulled himself right into championship contention.

Leonardo Fornaroli will lead the championship into next weekend's round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, with the pack closely chasing him. 

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

After a Formula 3 sprint race in Barcelona that produced chaos on Saturday, Nikita Bedrin and Sami Meguetounif were handed penalties post race.

Meguetounif and Bedrin were both handed grid penalties for Sunday’s feature race after their respective incidents on lap 3 of the sprint race at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

It was a sprint race that saw home favourite Mari Boya take the victory on home soil for his maiden Formula 3 victory.

Boya became the ninth different winner in nine races in 2024 and the 50th winner in the history of the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

He finished ahead of Ireland’s Alex Dunne, who was second. Dunne became the first driver in FIA Formula 3 history from the Republic of Ireland to get onto the podium.

Boya’s Campos teammate Oliver Goethe completed the podium in third.

Meguetounif has been handed a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s feature race in Barcelona after being “wholly responsible” for causing a collision with his Trident teammate Santiago Ramos.

The pair were first and second with Ramos in the lead. The two were fighting for position into turn 1 and Meguetounif got it all wrong – careering into teammate Ramos.

Meguetounif will serve this penalty in the feature race and will start 16th as he would have started in 11th without the penalty.

On the other hand, AIX Racing’s Italian driver Nikita Bedrin was handed a grid penalty for causing a collision with Callum Voisin – shortly after the Meguetounif and Ramos collision.

Bedrin was handed a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision which left both his AIX Racing car and Voisin’s Rodin Motorsport out of the race.

The Stewards heard from both drivers and teams representatives and felt that Bedrin was predominantly to blame for the pair coming together.

AIX Racing’s Bedrin was therefore handed the three-place penalty for the collision which will be served in Sunday’s feature race in Barcelona.

​Formula 3 will return to action in Sunday’s feature race at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 journal

Campos' Mari Boya took victory on home soil for his first Formula 3 victory, in Saturday's action packed sprint race in Barcelona.

Boya took victory to become the ninth different winner so far in 2024 with victory in Formula 3's 99th race that saw too safety cars.

The home favourite took victory ahead of MP Motorsport's McLaren junior Alex Dunne and the Campos of Oliver Goethe.

Gabriele Mini was one of the retirements from the race after coming together with former teammate Sebastian Montoya.

A fantastic race was in prospect as the teams and drivers prepared for the sprint race on Saturday morning at the Circuit Barcelona-Catlunya.

Drama galore in Friday's qualifying, which saw Christian Mansell take pole position for ART ahead of Arvid Lindblad. 

The top 12 were reversed as is common for the sprint race grid and Sami Meguetounif would have been looking forward to starting from pole for the race. However, he would not get to do that. This was due to Sebastian Montoya, who qualified 10th, had his time deleted for track limits, dropping him to 27th.

Therefore, this promoted Santiago Ramos into 12th and he would start from pole. Ramos' Trident teammate Sami Meguetounif would start alongside. Mari Boya, home hero, would start third.

All 30 cars were lined up on the grid for the Formula 3 and the race was ready to get underway.

The lights went out and a great start to the race for the Trident pair out front who maintained positions. Ramos had the lead maintained from Meguetounif, with places being made up all through the field.

Oliver Goethe made up places to fifth as cars were side by side all through the field. Difficult start for Nikola Tsolov, who won the last sprint race in Monaco. He was down to 18.

At the start of lap 2, a fantastic battle that was four wide between drivers that included Christian Mansell, Luke Browning, Nikola Tsolov and Gabriel Mini. Christian Mansell would be the driver who would be the lead of that battle.

The following lap and there would be chaos between the front pair as the two Trident's came together. Meguetounif made an over ambitious move on Santiago Ramos into turn 1. A move across the grass from Meguetounif then collided into Ramos. 

Meguetounif had terminal damage and was out on the spot, while Ramos had a puncture and came into the pits for a change of tyres. 

Nikita Bedrin and Callum Voisin were also in a  battle on the approach to the incident and the two also came together. Bedrin of AIX made a move to the inside of Voisin under yellow flags. Both coming together and ruling each other out of the race.

After these two incidents, the safety car would be deployed and both incidents would be investigated after the race.

Mari Boya became the new race leader, with Alex Dunne in second. Boya's Campos teammate Oliver Goethe was third.

End of lap 7 of 21 and racing was resumed as both incidents were cleared and BOya got a good restart and pulled clear of Dunne.

Gabriele Mini at the restart made a decent move up into 11th on Christian Mansell, the battle recommenced between the pair. Further round the lap and Noel Leon took sixth from Arvid Lindblad.

Sebastian Montoya up into 14th place after starting 27th an incredible start from him. He had just got into 14th after passing Tsolov at turn 10.

Montoya's Campos teammate Boya, was unable to pull a second gap to avoid Alex Dunne being in the DRS length of him. Boya would be under pressure from the Mclaren junior MP Motorsport driver.

The other McLaren junior driver on the grid, Martinius Stenshorne made a super move on Laurens Van Hoepen in the ART. This left Van Hoepen vulnerable to Leon. The pair went side by side for nearly half a lap and almost took fifth. Van Hoepen was able to keep fifth. Stenshorne was fourth, Van Hoepen fifth and Leon sixth.

Sebastian Montoya was up into another place, as he passed Luke Browning for 13th on lap 11. An incredible race from the Colombian driver so far. He started 27th and was picking his way through the field. He would then take 12th from Mansell.

After some persisting Luke Browning would finally make the pass on Mansell. A clean and lovely pass for 13th. However, into turn 1 Mansell would fight back and re-overtake the Williams Academy driver. Nikola Tsolov, Mansell's teammate was in the hunt.

Tasanapol Inthraphuvask would then be put under investigation for leaving the track and gaining an advantage into turn 2. An incident that was unseen on the footage but he would be awarded a 10-second time penalty for.

Out front and onto lap 15, Boya was in the lead ahead of Dunne and Goethe. He was being pressurised by the two though. 

A move from Inthraphuvasak though on the same lap, he got up into 20th with a pass on the Van Amersfoort car of Tommy Smith.

This battle was hotting up as Stenshorne had closed up to the top three and was fancying his opportunities and chances to get on the podium for the second time in his Formula 3 career.

A whole host of cars including Dunne would be noted for a false start. The race director has referred it to the Stewards to investigate, seven in total. This would be investigated after the race.

Lap 18 and Sebastian Montoya was trying to overtake Gabriele Mini for 11th but both came together into turn 5 and both going into the gravel. Both drivers would be out of the race and the safety car would be reintroduced to the circuit.

The safety car would be in on the final lap and this would be Mari Boya's day on home soil. A day he would have been dreaming about since he was a kid and no doubt he would have been thinking about it from the start of this weekend. He is the third Spanish driver in Formula 3 to win in Spain in the last three years.

David Vidales and Josep Maria Marti were the ones before him but he has took the chequered flag to win in Formula 3 for the first time in his career and also becomes the ninth Formula 3 winner in 2024.

He saw off challenges from Irishman Alex Dunne of MP Motorsport and his own teammate Oliver Goethe, who finished second and third respectively to complete the podium. Dunne would though be off to see the Stewards for a false start.

Martinius Stenshorne was fourth for Hitech with ART's Laurens Van Hoepen for the top five. Noel Loen finished sixth ahead of Trident's Leonarod Fornaroli, who moves up to second in the points standings.

Dino Beganovic finished eighth, with Arvid Lindblad and Tim Tramnitz rounding out the top 10.

A lot more will be on the line on Sunday as the drivers will contest for the big 25 points on offer, in the feature race with Christian Mansell on pole position, someone who has never won before. If the race is anything like today's you'd be mad not to miss it.

Action continues on Sunday.

In a dramatically tight Formula 3 qualifying, it was Christian Mansell who took his first Formula 3 pole position in Barcelona on Friday.

Mansell took pole ahead of Arvid Lindblad in a stunning lap time to take pole position for Sunday's Spanish feature race. The top four were separated by 0.056s with Nikola Tsolov third and Luke Browning fourth.

The entire field were so closely matched. There was just 1.3 seconds separating the 30 car grid.

Championship leader Gabriele Mini was only 16th with Sami Meguetounif starting from reverse grid pole for Saturday's sprint race. 

Formula 3 was ready to go qualifying after the morning practice session, which had very little running but drivers have known this circuit for a while having raced here in many junior open-wheel racing series' in the past.

Eight winners so far in FIA Formula 3 in 2024 and four different pole sitters, with many wondering ahead of qualifying, whether we would see a fifth.

Matias Zagazeta returns this weekend after missing the previous round in Monaco due to him having appendicitis.

The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane and the start of qualifying would be underway, with cars heading out the pit lane in a 30-minute shootout for pole position.

After a couple of installation laps, which are also known as warm up laps, drivers began to attempt some flying laps. The first one across the line was Dino Beganovic of Prema. He did well to avoid the traffic at the final corners. He would go fastest but would be beaten by many.

His teammate Mini would beat him but would too be beaten.

The ART cars were showing great pace as Christian Mansell jumped above Arvid Lindblad who had sat fastest, to go top. However, Mansell's teammate Laurens Van Hoepen went quickest with a brilliant lap time. A 1:29.187 was set by the Dutchman.

Leonardo Fornaroli, who lost the championship lead in Monaco, went second quickest to split the two red and black liveried ART cars. Fornaroli's lap was within a tenth of Van Hoepen.

Drivers then headed back to the pits for a check of data. They would not stay in the pits for too long as with 19 minutes to go, the cars started to reemerge from the pit lane.

An incident would be investigated by the Stewards after the session involving an unsafe release between Martinius Stenshorne and Leonardo Fornaroli. The McLaren academy Hitech driver could be in hot water.

With 15 to go, drivers were ready for the second flying laps and Luke Browning was flying as the track was really ramping up. The Hitech driver, backed by the Williams Academy driver went top by three tenths.

The lap times were tumbling as Mari Boya on home soil went second quickest and just missed out on top by six thousandths of a second. Christian Mansell would go third and Goethe to go fourth.

It was mightily close between them, with 0.031s separating the top four, and 0.098s separating the top five. Championship leader was fifth.

With 10 minutes to go it was unbelievably close in the qualifying session with just one second separating the entire field. A fantastic session that was delivering marvellous things.

As it stood with 10 minutes to go, it would be Ireland's Alex Dunne for MP Motorsport on reverse grid pole for the Saturday sprint race, as he was in 12th - 0.283s off the pace!

A quick switchover in the pit lane and the drivers were back out onto the circuit. Could anyone dethrone that time from Browning, it could have been any of them as it was so closely fought out front.

While the cars were coming out, an incident involving an unsafe release would be noted between Joseph Loake of Rodin Motorsport and Christian Mansell of ART.

Four minutes remained, and drivers were setting off on their final laps in qualifying around the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

Browning would be flying once again with another purple first sector momentarily and would pull over three tenths clear on provisional pole but he would be pipped by Arvid Lindblad by 0.020s! Incredible scenes in Formula 3 as Nikola Tslov, the Monaco sprint race winner, split their pair of them. He missed out on top of the time sheets by 0.020s.

Meanwhile, his Australian teammate Christian Mansell had put in a stunning lap time to take pole position in FIA Formula 3 for the first time in his career. He got a front row start in Monaco but this time it was pole position. Sensational stuff from the ART driver. 

Just over half a tenth separated the top four of the field. Arvid Lindblad was beaten for pole by Mansell by 0.036 - he was second overall. Nikola Tsolov was third for ART, with Luke Browning fourth.

Oliver Goethe was just over a tenth away from pole position but had to settle for fifth. He was just ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli in sixth for Trident. Martinius Stenshorne, who topped practice was seventh with Laurens Van Hopen eighth in the other ART. 

Alex Dunne was ninth as the highest MP Motorsport car with Sebastian Montoya 10th for Campos. Maria Boya was 11th but will have a reverse grid pole front row while Sami Meguetounif will start from the front of the field on Saturday.

​Gabriele Mini will only start 16th in both races

The entire 30 cars were separated by just 1.3 seconds! 

A fantastic job from all the drivers who gave each other a great fight for pole position but in the end a stunning lap from Mansell leaves him on pole position for Sunday's feature race where the main points are on offer.

It was so closely matched with no one knowing who would be on pole until the very end of the session.

Saturday will be the next time for action in FIA Formula 3 and that will be for the sprint race, where Sami Meguetounif will start from pole position.

Norwegian McLaren junior driver Martinius Stenshorne ended top in free practice in Barcelona on Friday.

He ended top of the times, narrowly ahead of second place Oliver Goethe of Campos. Stenshorne of Hitech was top as the top three were separated by less than a tenth. 

Gabriele Mini was third for Prema, and the Italian Alpine Academy driver leads the championship coming into round five.

Free practice arrived in a sunny morning at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya with a lot of excitement about the start of the triple header.

This would be a momentous weekend for the sport with the 100th race to come in Sunday's feature race, where it all began in May 2019.

At Jenzer, Matias Zagazeta was back in the car 19 after missing the Monaco round due to appendicitis. James Hedley replaced him but now the Peruvian can get back to it.

It was a very slow start to proceedings in Formula 3 practice with little action and apart from an early out lap, no drivers were out on track until there were 25 minutes to go, when drivers were starting to venture out. After a couple of laps, the drivers out on track began to set lap times.

As these were the first lap times, the times would begin to tumble, but Gabriele Mini would have the fastest time in the early laps, with a 1:28.847, which was some six tenths faster than Mexican Van Amersfoort driver Noel Leon. Max Esterson was third provisionally with over seven tenths separating the American from Mini.

All three Hitech Pulse-Eight cars were quite slow in venturing out onto the circuit and were missing out on track times compared to the others, as times were starting to improve. Sami Meguetounif and Alex Dunne would momentarily go second and third ahead of Leon, showing the improvement of time on the circuit.

Campos had great pace when Formula 3 visited Barcelona for mid-season testing in April and they were quick once again. Oliver Goethe went fastest with an impressive 1:28.810. He beat the Prema of Gabriele Mini by 0.037s. His teammate, Sebastian Montoya would go third fastest. The Colombian would be just shy of two tenths off the pace.

Kacper Sztuka had a moment in the gravel on the final corner ruining his lap time. Sztuka would have been wanting to start well here after him with a point to prove - after he and the Red Bull Academy parted ways earlier in the week. 

McLaren junior driver Martinius Stenshorne went quickest with a splendid time of a 1:28.774. Stenshorne, race winner in Melbourne, set a great lap time.

Drivers were getting in each other's way and it was starting to become a little bit messy out there, especially an incident with Leonardo Fornaroli and Luke Browning in sector 3. Fornaroli was on a quick lap and Browning did not see him coming. It would be interesting to see what the Stewards thought of it.

Mari Boya found the barrier at the end of turn 1 and ended the session abruptly with a red flag. Race Control confirmed the session would not be restarted. A suspension issue seemingly caused the accident

This meaning after a session of little running, Martinius Stenshorne would end the session narrowly at the top, ahead of Oliver Goethe and Gabriele Mini, who were second and third respectively.

Luke Browning would be fourth ahead of Sebastian Montoya who completed the top five. Sami Meguetounif was sixth ahead of his Trident teammate Santiago Ramos, who was seventh. Cian Shields, Alex Dunne and Leonardo Fornaroli rounded off the top 10.

Not much running was completed in the free practice session in Barcelona for the FIA Formula 3 grid, with 25 minutes of many cars on track trying to set lap times.

Martinius Stenshorne, race winner from the Australian sprint race, will be feeling the most confident but a lot can still change from now until the day's later qualifying.

Action in FIA Formula 3 will resume in Friday's later qualifying session

FIA Formula 3 heads to the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya for round 5 of the 2024 season and the 100th round of the entire championship history.

The Spanish circuit will play host to the 100th round of FIA Formula 3 this weekend, which is quite the story as this was where the very first round of Formula 3 took place, back in May 2019.

Formula 3 will visit Spain ahead of five rounds in the next six weeks. Gabriele Mini comes into the round with the championship lead but his points is very narrow.

To the birthplace of Formula 3 and the place of mid-season testing in 2024 as the series will visit the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya for the second time this season.

There have been many moments and many winners over the years when the series has visited the circuit. Circuit-Barcelona Catalunya has appeared on the Formula 3 calendar for every year of the competition's existence - making it the most fairy-tale place for round 100.

Last year in Formula 3, it was a magical moment for home hero and home team as Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti reigned supreme by taking pole position on the Friday and converting it into feature race glory on the Sunday.

In Saturday's sprint race, it would be Zak O'Sullivan who would take victory for Prema. It would be a British 1-2 as Luke Browning came home in second place, while Leonardo Fornaroli ended third for Trident.

In the feature race, Marti won and got the fastest lap in a superb drive from him. He finished ahead of Franco Colapinto of MP Motorsport and Prema's Dino Beganovic were second and third respectively.

However, in 2024 the driver will race around a circuit that underwent significant changes in 2023. The 16-cornered layout became 14, losing the chicane, which made turns 14 and 15. That has now gone with turn 13 being a durable curve. This is in an attempt to make the track quicker and aid closer racing.

The track is made up of 4.657km with 2 DRS zones into turns 1 and 10. Overtaking opportunities will be plenty within the sprint and feature races. The sprint race will last 21 laps, while the feature race will last 25 laps

After Formula 3 was formed in 2019 from the old GP3 series, excitement was around as the newly formed paddock prepared for round 1 at the very circuit of this weekend's venue - Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

Robert Shwartzman winning the inaugural championship back in 2019.

This is only the sixth season of the modernisation of this great championship. It has witnessed Oscar Piastri, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson race in the championship. All four of them have since gone on to race in a Formula One Grand Prix.

Shwartzman, Piastri, Dennis Hauger, Victor Martins and Gabriel Bortoleto are the five champions so far in the formula 3 history books, a we are awaiting to see who will be the sixth this year.

There have been so many great races and great battles with excellent lead commentaries from Alex Jacques, Harry Benjamin and & Chris McCarthy. With many memories to be made across the weekend, there is every reason for fans to feel excited about the next 100.  

Round 4 in Monte Carlo, the capital of Monaco, was the previous round of this year's Formula 3 Championship. It would be just the second visit to Monte Carlo for the series after the first visit to the circuit in 2023.

Gabriele Mini shone in 2023 as he won the feature race and took pole position. He would replicate the same results in 2024 in what was a crazy weekend of action.

In the sprint race, Nikola Tsolov would take victory to become the first Bulgarian to take a podium and victory in GP3 and Formula 3 history ahead of TimTramnitz and Laurens Van Hoepen, who were second and third respectively.

The Monaco sprint saw eight retirements across the race with five drivers eliminated on the opening lap in a pile up. Arvid Lindblad had squeezed out Christian Mansell and spun as he made contact with Dufek clipping the Prema.

Mansell had no where to go and was out, so too was Alex Dunne and Cian Shields, who both ran into the back of Mansell sending themselves both out of the race.

Mini would win the feature race in impressive fashion to take the championship lead going into the event. Christian Mansell came home in second place with Luke Browning completing the three on the podium.

A special landmark of 100 rounds this weekend, where it all began in Barcelona and the 30 drivers will want to write their names in the history books when Formula 3 reflects on this event years down the line.

Matias Zagazeta makes a return to the series after missing Monaco due to appendicitis. Will he repeat what Carlos Sainz did in Formula 1 earlier on in 2024.

Free Practice commences the weekend's action on Friday.

Track times

• Free Practice 21/06: 09:55-10:40
• Qualifying 21/06: 15:00-15:30
• Sprint Race 22/06: 10:40-11:20
• Feature Race 23/06: 10:05-10:50

UK times

• Free Practice 21/06: 08:55-09:40
• Qualifying 21/06: 14:00-14:30
• Sprint Race 22/06: 09:40-10:20
• Feature Race 23/06: 09:05-09:50

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 journal

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal