Prema Racing have been crowned Formula 3 teams champions in 2024, for a fifth time in FIA Formula 3 in a chaotic Formula 3 feature race at Spa Francorchamps on Sunday morning.

The feature race saw three safety cars and a lot of dramatic action as the teams champions were crowned in Italian outfit Prema Racing, who have won the Teams Standings with a round to spare. Also in the action-packed race, it would be a maiden Formula 3 victory for team and driver.

Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport, who started on pole position, managed the race brilliantly out front, with three safety car restarts to get right. He did just that and the young British rookie would take his maiden Formula 3 victory in Belgium, in the feature race. 

The victory for Voisin's team Rodin Motorsport, would also be their maiden win in FIA Formula 3, since the championship re-branded from GP3 in 2019. At that level, the Rodin outfit had failed to win in the previous 10 years as a team, but that long record was over and Alex Lynn was no longer the most recent winner for that team.

Voisin would take the win ahead of Sebastian Montoya for Campos, who would take his first podium of the 2024 season as the Colombian driver would take second place. Championship contender Leonardo Fornaroli would take third place in a great result for Trident.

Fornaroli with the podium takes over the championship round, heading into the season finale at Monza, at the end of August. Initial championship leader Gabriele Mini would fail to score in the feature race after spinning at turn 1.

After an already fantastic and dramatic weekend of action it would be time for the feature race in Formula 3, to conclude round nine of 10 in the 2024 championship.

On Saturday morning, in the sprint race, it would be Prema's Dino Beganovic who would take victory for his second victory of the season and his Formula 3 career. It would be a Prema 1-2 with championship leader Gabriele Mini finishing in second place.

The great haul of points would give Prema a realistic chance of taking the Teams Championship with a round to spare. Noel Leon finished third for his fourth podium of the season, for Van Amersfoort Racing.

It would be time for racing on Sunday morning for the feature race with Callum Voisin, British driver of Rodin Motorsport starting from pole position. Voisin set a stunning lap in qualifying to take his maiden pole position in FIA Formula 3.

The Rodin Motorsport of Voisin would be on pole and joined on the front row by Irish racer Alex Dunne, of MP Motorsport who will start second on the grid. Voisin would look to be the first driver in FIA Formula 3 to win for the Rodin Motorsport team. Would the Brit be able to do it?

30 cars would be able to take to the grid on a damp Spa Francorchamp circuit, for the penultimate feature race of the season and the final one before the summer break in Belgium. All of the drivers would complete the formation lap and it would be time to go racing.

The light would go out and the race was underway and Voisin would get a good start off the line and he would take the lead of the race as a poor start from Alex Dunne would see him slip to fourth as Sebastian Montoya, who started fourth, would take second into turn 1 as Leonardo Fornaroli was third.

Drama further back at the start of the race would see Gabriele Mini in a spin at turn 1, after contact made with Oliver Goethe of Campos Racing and a nightmare for the championship leader with his two main rivals in top 10 positions.

There were cars struggling for grip though on the slippery track surface as Voisin and Montoya would go wide at Les Combes but they would maintain their positions. 

Start of the second lap and Voisin would lock up into the first corner, giving Montoya a great run on him down to Les Combes, the British driver would be under pressure. Voisin would maintain the lead and would be able to keep ahead of Montoya's Campos.

The safety car would be brought out as Martinius Stenshorne and Tuukka Taponen had collided after spinning in their own separate incidents and would be both out of the race. Stenshorne and Sophia Floersch would cause the first spin. 

At the end of lap 6, the broken Hitech of McLaren junior Stenshorne and the ART of Taponen would be cleared. There would be racing action again as at the start of lap 7 the race was back underway.

Voisin would get a good restart and he would keep the lead from Montoya's Campos with Leonardo Fornaroli in third. Fornaroli's teammate Sami Meguetounif would take fourth from Irish driver Alex Dunne. Racing would fail to be green flag conditions for long as a second safety car would be deployed.

Joseph Loake of Rodin Motorsport and Sophia Floersch of Van Amersfoort Racing would come together, with the Alpine Academy driver Floersch being beached in the gravel and being out of the race. This would cause a two lap stoppage of green flag racing and lap 1 the remaining drivers with going back racing again.

There would be not much green flag racing once again as Voisin made a good restart but Alex Dunne would drop to 10th with a small stint of no power. He would get the car back going at full speed but it would be a race-ruining moment for the McLaren junior.

The safety car would be out once again as two separate incident would occur at turns 8 and 9.. Firstly, in the context of the drivers championship, Christian Mansell and Arvid Lindblad would tangle, with the Red Bull junior of Lindblad being sent into the gravel in his Prema. A nightmare for the championship contender.

In a separate incident, Charlie Wurz would clip the tyre of Mari Boya in the Campos. Boa would lose the car and would find the barriers at turn 9. Thankfully he was okay but the safety car would once again be deployed, for the third time in the race. Wurz would pit for a front wing change but in doing so would speed in the pit lane. A five-second time penalty would be given,

The restart would get underway for the start of lap 14 out of 15 and there would be two laps of racing, at the end of the feature race in Belgium. Voisin would once again nail the restart ahead of Montoya in second place.

On the run to Les Combes, a great run from Noel Leon on Sami Meguetounif and the an Amersfoort of Leon would get ahead of Trident and the Mexican driver would be up into fourth place.

Onto the final lap, and the pressure would be being hounded on Callum Voisin by Montoya but the Rodin Motorsport driver in the lead would have all of the answers out in front. 

At the GP3 and Formula 3 level, it had been 10 years since the Rodin Motorsport outfift, formerly of Carlin, as Alex Lynn would be the winner for the team on that day. They had never managed to win in FIA Formula 3, since the championship re-brand in 2019. That was all to change.

Out front, Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport would manage everything in the race including three safety car restarts to perfect and out of the final few corners he would see the chequered flag first, from the race control tower.

Voisin would make a fantastic piece of history for himself and the team as the British rookie would come across the line for his maiden win in the FIA Formula 3 Championship but it would also be a maiden win in the FIA Formula 3 Championship for Rodin Motorsport in a memorable and historic day for the outfit.

British driver Voisin would also see off Sebastian Montoya of Campos Racing who would come across the line in second place, for his first podium of the season. Leonardo Fornaroli would take a crucial third place for Trident, as with Gabriele Mini out of the points, Fornaroli would take over the championship lead. 

Noel Leon would finish fourth for Van Amersfoort Racing in another splendid drive from the Mexican as Trident's Sami Meguetounif would complete the top five. Luke Browning would finish in sixth place for Hitech Pulse-Eight ahead of Max Esterson in seventh for Jenzer Motorsport. Santiago Ramos, Tim Tramnitz and Alex Dunne would complete the top 10.

With no points for ART, who had to score 27 points in the race to keep the championship fight alive in the Teams Standings, the Teams Championship would be decided. For the fifth time since the championship begun in 2019, Prema have become the Teams champions for 2024 in what has been such a brilliantly consistent season from them.

A great achievement from Prema, who despite neither of their three drivers scoring a point, they had been able to clinch the title with a race to spare.

After so much drama at Spa Francorchamps, Formula 3 has a very close championship fight for the drivers prize with one round to go, coming at the Monza circuit, in Italy, at the end of August.

Just 29 points separate the top five in the championship heading into the season finale of the 2024 championship at Monza in Italy with Leonardo Fornaroli having a one point adavantage over Gabriele Mini, who came into the Belgium round with the championship lead.

There will be over a month with no action for the summer break for the teams, drivers and media alike. The season finale will be between August 31 and September 02. In Monza at the end of August and the start of September, the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship will be decided.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

After a chaotic Formula 3 sprint race on Saturday morning at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, all three Trident drivers were among the nine drivers handed post-race penalties by the Stewards.

All three Trident cars in Leonardo Fornaroli, Sami Meguetounif and Santiago Ramos were among nine drivers which included Martinius Stenshorne and Luke Browning of Hitech Pulse-Eight, Mari Boya of Campos Racing, Alexander Dunne of MP Motorsport, Charlie Wurz of Jenzer Motorsport and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak of AIX Racing.

The nine drivers were penalised after the Formula 3 sprint race in Belgium, with track limits being at the centre of the reasons for the penalties handed out amongst the nine drivers,

In the Saturday morning sprint race, a controlled performance from Prema driver Dino Beganovic who would take his second win of the season in a very calm Prema 1-2, albeit in tricky conditions. Beganovic would finish ahead of teammate Gabriele Mini, the championship leader.

Firstly, all three Trident drivers in Fornaroli, Meguetounif and Ramos would all be handed time penalties after the race for track limit violations.

Meguetounif had already been handed 30 seconds worth of time penalties for track limits during the feature race. In addition to the 30 seconds, Meguetounif would be handed a five-second time penalty for the additional track limits infringement.

He would have an unchanged position in the final classification, from the provisional classification, in 28th place. It would be 35-seconds worth of time penalties due to exceeding track limits on 10 separate occasions.

The other Trident drivers in Leonardo Fornaroli and Santiago Ramos were handed time penalties, alongisde their teammate Sami Meguetounif, Fornaroli was handed a five second time penalty alongside with his teammate Ramos, as both drivers had exceeded track limits on four separate occasions each.

​ Therefore, with the penalties applied, Fornaroli would drop from eighth to ninth while Ramos would drop from fifth to eighth. A track limit headache for the Trident team, post-race at Spa Francorchamps.

Over at Hitech, their drivers Luke Browning and Martinius Stenshorne would be punished by the Stewards, after the race, for track limit violations.

Browning of Williams Academy would receive 10 seconds worth of time penalties after the race due to having been found to have exceeded track limits on five separate occasions. The 10-second time penalty would see the driver second in the championship drop from seventh to 12th, therefore out of the points. A nightmare for the British driver.

As for the McLaren junior of Martinius Stenshorne, he would receive just a five-second penalty for track limit violations, in comparison to his Hitech Pulse-Eight teammate Luke Browning. Stenshorne would exceed track limits on four separate occasions and therefore would be handed a five-second time penalty, dropping him to 18th overall, in the final classification.

Over at Campos Racing, Spanish driver Mari Boya would be handed a lot of five-second time penalties after the race, amounting to a 25-second time penalty overall. After the sprint race at Spa Francorchamps, by the Stewards, Boya would be found to have exceeded track limits on eight separate occasions. Due to the 25-second time penalty, Boya would drop to 28th in the final classification, behind Meguetounif.

Charlie Wurz of Jenzer Motorsport would be handed a five-second time penalty by the Stewards for track limits also. Wurz would be handed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits on four separate occasions during the sprint race. Therefore, the Jenzer Motorsport driver would remain in 26th place, despite the penalties.

At Van Amersfoort Racing, Australian driver Tommy Smith would be handed a 10-second time penalty, which was amounted up from two five-second time penalties after the sprint race in Belgium.

Smith , after the race by the Stewards, was found to have exceeded the track limits on five separate occasions. As a result, Smith would pick up 10 seconds worth of a time penalty and the Van Amersfoort driver would drop from 18th to 25th in the final classification.

McLaren junior driver Alex Dunne would also be handed 10 seconds worth of time penalties after the sprint race at Spa Francorchamps, for MP Motorsport. Dunne would pick up two five-second time penalties for exceeding the track limits on five separate occasions which would see the total penalty amount up to 10 seconds. With the penalty applied, Dunne would drop to 23rd in the final classification from 14th.

Finally, AIX Racing's Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would be handed 10 seconds worth of time penalties after the sprint race in Belgium.The 10 seconds would go alongside the 10-second time penalty that Inthraphuvasak picked up during the race for track limits. The total time penalties would amount to 20 seconds worth but would keep the Thailand driver in 29th in classification.

After all the penalties handed out post-race, the drivers, teams and Stewards will be hoping there are less track limit infringements when FIA Formula 3 goes racing for the penultimate feature race of the season on Sunday morning at the Spa Francorchamps circuit, on Grand Prix Sunday in Belgium.

The feature race will commence with Great Britain's Callum Voisin on pole position and Alex Dunne of the Republic of Ireland joining him on the front row. Lights out will be 08:30 track time, which is 07:30am UK time.

Drivers highlighted in red were awarded time penalties and due to these have been classified in these positions.

​

1. Dino Beganovic (Sweden, Prema Racing)
2. Gabriele Mini (Italy, Prema Racing)
3. Noel Leon (Mexico, Trident)
4. Tim Tramnitz (Germany, MP Motorsport)
5. Sebastian Montoya (Colombia, Campos Racing)
6. Oliver Goethe (Germany, Campos Racing)
7. Callum Voisin (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
8. Santiago Ramos (Mexico, Trident)
9. Leonardo Fornaroli (Italy, Trident)
10. Laurens Van Hoepen (Netherlands, ART Grand Prix)
11. Joseph Loake (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
12. Luke Browning (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
13. Nikita Bedrin (Italy, AIX Racing)
14. Tuukka Taponen (Finland, ART Grand Prix)
15. Arvid Lindblad (Great Britain, Prema Racing)
16. Christian Mansell (Australia, ART Grand Prix)
17. Matias Zagazeta (Peru, Jenzer Motorsport)
18. Martinius Stenshorne (Norway,Hitech Pulse-Eight)
19. Sophia Floersch (Germany, Van Amersfoort Racing)
20. Kacper Sztuka (Poland, MP Motorsport)
21. Piotr Wisnicki (Poland, Rodin Motorsport)
22. Cian Shields (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
23. Alexander Dunne (Republic of Ireland, MP Motorsport)
24. Joshua Dufek (Austria, AIX Racing)
25. Tommy Smith (Australia, Van Amersfoort Racing)
26. Charlie Wurz (Austria, Jenzer Motorsport)
27. Sami Meguetounif (France, Trident)
28. Mari Boya (Spain, Campos Racing)
29. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Thailand, AIX Racing)
30. Max Esterson (United States, Jenzer Motorsport) DNF

​

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Ferrari junior driver and Prema talent Dino Beganovic claimed his second win of the season in the Belgium sprint race at Spa Francorchamps, on Saturday morning.

The sprint race would see 12 laps of racing and a Prema 1-2 with Beganovic converting pole position into victory. A great result for Prema who would look to secure the Teams Championship title this weekend at Spa Francorchamp, with a round to spare.

Beganovic would take victory ahead of his teammate Gabriele Mini, who would finish second and pick up a great amount of championship points over his rivals. The Alpine Academy driver would hold the championship lead coming into the round.

Noel Leon for Van Amersfoort Racing would finish third for his fourth podium of the season and his second in consecutive races.

With his second win of the season, Beganovic is up to fifth in the standings within 28 points of his Prema teammate Gabriele Mini who leads the way

It would be Saturday of the penultimate round of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 championship season for round nine of 10 taking place before the summer break at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

Saturday morning in a Formula 3 weekend often has the sprint race in store and that is exactly what awaited the championship in Belgium after a Friday full of drama with the practice and qualifying sessions taking place.

In the qualifying, it would be a maiden pole position in Formula 3 for Rodin Motorsport's Callum Voisin, who put in a great lap, in a thrilling end to the session ahead of Irish MP Motorsport driver Alex Dunne who qualified second.

For the sprint race grid, the top 12 would be reversed from the qualifying session on Friday, meaning for the second sprint race in a row Dino Beganovic of Prema would start from reverse grid pole. Beganovic would start alongside his Prema teammate and the championship leader Gabriele Mini.


Sami Meguetounif of Trident, Mari Boya of Campos, Matias Zagazeta and Charlie Wurz of Jenzer Motorsport, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak of AIX Racing and Tuukka Taponen on his Formula 3 debut for ART would all take grid penalties.

After the formation lap it would be time to go racing with all 30 cars taking to the grid for the penultimate sprint race of the season. 

The lights would go out and the race was underway and a great start from championship leader Gabriele Mini and the Alpine Academy driver would take the lead from his Prema teammate into the first corner.

Racing would be green through most of the first two sectors before there would be a safety car, as at the top of Raidillon, the Jenzer motorsport of Max Esterson would lose control on a slippery surface and would head into the barriers. Thankfully Esterson was okay, and all drivers avoided him.

At the safety car interval, Arvid Lindblad had made it up to 16th from 27th on the grid. A great start from the Red Bull junior and championship contender. 

End of lap 3, for the start of lap 4 and the race could get back to green flag and racing conditions, and an initial good restart from Mini looked good into turn 1 at La Source. However, Beganovic had a much better exit and got a good run on his Prema teammate down the Kemmel Straight.

With a smart move around the outside of Mini, Beganovic would take the lead. Further back, Noel Leon of Van Amersfoort Racing would make a move up into fifth place ahead of Luke Browning, with a fantastic pass on the championship contender.

Browning was struggling for grip and would be slipping down through the order and on consecutive laps would lose a place to Campos' Sebastian Montoya and then Trident's Sami Meguetounif who would find a way through. Meguetounif would be forced off the track with him and Browning going off. It would be noted by Race Control as forcing another driver off the track.

Noel Leon had been showing some good pace throughout the race and after pursuing for many laps, the Trident of fellow Mexican driver Santiago Ramos, Leon wold find a way through and the Van Amersfoort car would be up into fourth.

Onto lap 10 of the 12 lap sprint race and Tim Tramnitz in third had been pressuring Gabriele Mini and thought of a move down into Les Combes at turn 5, but would be unable to make the move complete as a great defence from Mini maintained him second place.

On the final lap and Tramnitz ended up falling back into the clutches of Leon but with a move down the Kemmel Straight and would take third place on the final lap on the race for what would be a second podium in consecutive races.

Dino Beganovic out in front had managed to get ahead of Mini at the safety car restart and showed great pace throughout the race to manage the gap to Mini and not become too under pressure. For the second time in 2024 and the second time in his Formula 3 career, he would take victory in a race.

Beganovic would see the chequered flag first and would come across the line first to get what could be a huge win in the championship fight come the end of the season. It would be a Prema 1-2 as Gabriele Mini, the championship leader, would get a great haul of points for his championship ambitions and Prema's.

Prema's 1-2 result could help them in wrapping up the Teams championship at Spa Francorchamps, before the final round at Monza in September. In third place would be Noel Leon for Van Amersfoort Racing.

The Mexican driver took his fourth podium of the season. MP Motorsport's Tim Tramnitz was fourth with Santiago Ramos completing the top five in fifth place. Luke Browning was sixth for Hitech, just pipping Campos' Sebastian Montoya, who would settle for seventh initially.

Leonardo Fornaroli would finish eighth for Trident, with Campos' Oliver Goethe finished ninth after a post-race time penalty for Sami Meguetounif, for track limits, and saw him drop out of the top 10. Sunday's feature race pole sitter Callum Voisin completed the top 10.

Gabriele Mini has extended his lead in the championship to eight points over Luke Browning who is second in the standings. 28 points separated the top five in the standings at the provisional result, at the end of the sprint race.

Round nine action of the Formula 3 Championship will return for the Sunday morning feature race with Great Britain's Callum Voisin starting on pole in the feature race, for the first time in FIA Formula 3. Action will begin at 08:30am track time, which will be 07:30am UK time.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

After Formula 3 qualifying on Friday afternoon, six drivers were handed a grid penalty for Saturday morning's sprint race at Spa Francorchamps, in Belgium.

Among the six drivers who have been handed grid penalties for the sprint race is debut driver at ART Grand Prix Tuukka Taponen who would collect a grid penalty for his first race in FIA Formula 3 career.

Taponen would be joined by Sophia Floersch, Sami Meguetounif, Charlie Wurz, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Mari Boya in receiving a grid penalty for Saturday morning's sprint race for round nine of 10 in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

It would be a dramatic qualifying session with Callum Voisin of Rodin Motorsport and Great Britain taking pole position, and his maiden one in FIA Formula 3.

Firstly, Taponen was handed a grid penalty for the sprint race on Saturday due to the driver from Finland to have found to have been impeding Irish driver of MP Motorsport, Alex Dunne.

Taponen would be investigated after the Friday qualifying for allegedly impeding multiple cars at turn 18, on the racing line. The cars that had he ad impeded were on flying laps and had a great chance of improving on their personal best lap times.

After the Stewards had spoke to Taponen and his ART team represntative as well as reviewing all relevant data and video evidence of the reported incident, it was determined that Taponen was driving at a marginally slower speed on the racing line for about nine seconds. This would therefore be against the Race Director's Event Notes.

As a result of being found to have impeded in the session and would subsequently be handed a three-place grid penalty for the next race of which he competes in, which will be Taponen's debut race in Formula 3 at Spa Francorchamps.

For the same reason as each other, the remaining five drivers would also be handed grid penalties for the Saturday morning sprint race. Sami Meguetounif, Sophia Floersch, Mari Boya, Charlie Wurz and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak have all been handed grid penalties.for the sprint race, for the same infringement.

At the end of qualifying, there would be a huge traffic jam in the final few minutes, with a traffic forming at the final two corners of the circuit, with drivers wanting to get on with the laps as they would be aiming to set improved lap times to get themselves in better positions for the races.

In their eagerness to get ahead of the queuing traffic, Floersch of Van Amersfoort, Meguetounif of Trident, Boya of Campos, Wurz of Jenzer and Inthraphuvasak of AIX Racing were all accused of overtaking the slow cars of the circuit. Therefore it would be classed as leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

After the session, the FIA Race Event Stewards reviewed all video evidence from the shenanigans that went on in the latter stages of the session. The Stewards would then speak to each of the five drivers and their respective team representatives.

In their investigations, the Stewards determined that all five drivers had gone off the circuit in the final minute of qualifying to gain track positions and overtook many cars off the circuit, therefore gaining an advantage.

Inthraphuvasak, Boya, Floersch, Wurz and Meguetounif would all be handed a three-place grid penalty each that would be served in the next race of which those drivers are to compete in. That race will be Saturday morning's sprint race.

These penalties will all be joined by a five-place grid drop for Matias Zagazeta, who received his penalty for causing a collision with Arvid Lindblad in the Hungary feature race. 

A sprint race that will see a Prema front row lockout as for the second round in a row Dino Beganovic will start from reverse grid pole position. This time around at Spa Francorchamps he will have championship leader Gabriele Mini starting alongside him, on the front row.

The race will commence at 09:50 track time which will be 08:50 UK time.

All drivers highlighted in red start in those positions due to grid penalties

1. ​Dino Beganovic (Sweden, Prema Racing)
2. Gabriele Min (Italy, Prema Racing)
3. Santiago Ramos (Mexico, Trident)
4. Tim Tramnitz (Germany, MP Motorsport)
5. Luke Browning (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
6. Max Esterson (United States, Jenzer Motorsport)
7. Noel Leon (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing)
8. Sami Meguetounif (France, Trident)
9. Sebastian Montoya (Colombia, Campos Racing)
10. Leonardo Fornaroli (Italy, Trident)
11. Alexander Dunne (Republic of Ireland, MP Motorsport)
12. Callum Voisin (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
13. Oliver Goethe (Germany, Campos Racing)
14. Laurens Van Hoepen (Netherlands, ART Grand Prix)
15. Nikita Bedrin (Italy, AIX Racing)
16. Tuukka Taponen (Finland, ART Grand Prix)
17. Joseph Loake (Great Britain, Rodin Motorsport)
18. Christian Mansell (Australia, ART Grand Prix)
19. Martinius Stenshorne (Norway, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
20. Piotr Wisnicki (Poland, Rodin Motorsport)
21. Joshua Dufek (Austria, AIX Racing)
22. Matias Zagazeta (Peru, Jenzer Motorsport)
23. Sophia Floersch (Germany, Van Amersfoort Racing)
24. Tommy Smith (Australia, Van Amersfoort Racing)
25. Mari Boya (Spain, Campos Racing)
26. Cian Shields (Great Britain, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
27. Arvid Lindblad (Great Britain, Prema Racing)
28. Kacper Sztuka (Poland, MP Motorsport)
29. Charlie Wurz (Austria, Jenzer Motorsport)
30. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (Thailand, AIX Racing)

​

Brandon Whiteside

In a dramatic end to Formula 3 qualifying, at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, it would be British rookie of Rodin Motorsport, Callum Voisin who would take his maiden pole position in the category on Friday afternoon.

A thrilling 30 minutes of action in qualifying would set the grid for both races to come across the weekend, with Voisin coming out on top at the Spa Francorchamps circuit with a lap time of 2:04.321.

Voisin took pole position by over a tenth from Irish driver Alex Dunne, who secured his best qualifying result in his rookie season of FIA Formula 3 for the McLaren junior at MP Motorsport. Trident driver and championship contender Leonardo Fornaroli would qualify third.

It would be the penultimate qualifying of the season in an enthralling championship fight with Gabriele Mini the championship leader qualifying 11th and being set to start the Saturday sprint race from the front row. Third in the championship Arvid Lindblad would have a difficult qualifying and the Red Bull junior, Prema driver could only manage 27th in the order.

For the penultimate time in the 2024 Formula 3 Championship it was qualifying Friday in the 10-round season. Round nine was in Belgium at the iconic and legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit.

The drivers standings is incredibly close and all is up for grabs in 2024, with the top seven in the championship being separated by just 30 points with Prema Alpine Academy driver Gabriele Mini leading the championship.

NIkola Tsolov would be missing from round nine of the Formula 3 Championship over the weekend, due to him being banned for competing in another series around Spa without permission and gaining an unfair sporting advantage. He would be replaced by Ferrari Academy drive Tuukka Taponen, who would be making his Formula 3 debut. Taponen currently competes in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine (FRECA), where he sits second in the standings.

Attention though would turn to qualifying and the drivers would have 30 minutes on Friday afternoon to set their best times, which would shape how the grid would look for both races to come across the weekend. Second in the championship standings Luke Browning would top the Friday morning practice.

The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane and with there being a risk of rain at 30%. Drivers would be wanting to get on with it as the dry conditions would see the faster lap times.

Hitech were not wanting to wait around and after little installation they would go and attempt their first flying laps. Luke Browning would go fastest and would set the benchmark time ahead of his teammate and fellow Brit, Cian Shields. Martinius Stenshorne would go third but would have his lap time deleted due to a track limit violation.

As the times started to flood in Alex Dunne of MP Motorsport and the McLaren junior would provisionally go to pole position but the times would tumble as more time would be being found by the pack.

Sami Meguetounif of Trident would provisionally go to the top but like Stenshorne would lose a time to track limits as would Noel Leon who a set a time to go inside the top 12. ART Grand Prix would be the team to shine though in the first few flying laps.

Christian Mansell would go to the top of the time sheets to take provisional pole before being beaten by his teammate Laurens Van Hoepen by just 11 thousandths of a second (0.011). Taponen on his first run in his Formula 3 debut would end eighth.

However Taponen would slide down to 10th by the end of the first laps. 

Nikita Bedrin for AIX Racing put a decent first lap together as he was within a tenth of Van Hoepen in third, behind Christian Mansell

As most drivers would head back to the pits for a change of tyres and a review of data, the Hitech cars would be out there setting a flying lap. Browning would make a mistake on his lap but as for Stenshorne he would go 11th fastest, which would be a provisional front row start for the Saturday sprint race - with the top 12 being reversed.

With just over 10 minutes to go, the drivers would head out onto the circuit in preparation for their final runs in qualifying for the penultimate time in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

After two installation laps, Noel Leon who was without a lap time due to track limit violations. He was to take provisional pole position and would set a much improved time, with a time almost a second clear of the previous provisional pole time of Van Hoepen.

There would be so many drivers to improve including Leonardo Fornaroli, Sebastian Montoya and Alex Dunne but Callum Voisin would jump to the front of the field with a fantastic lap time and would set the fastest lap time and to go to provisional pole position.

Following this would be a cool down lap but drivers would form a huge traffic jam into the latter stages of the lap causing cars going off the track and getting impatient for overtaking. This would create a few unsavoury scenes in the session with some drivers failing to make it to the line in time to start their final flying laps - Leonardo Fornaroli and Christian Mansell would be among them not making it before the chequered flag.

On the final laps though, no drivers would improve to threaten the top 12 and therefore it would signal the end of the session in Belgium at the Spa Francorchamps circuit. In fantastic fashion, it would be a first Formula 3 pole position and a first of Rodin Motorsport's season for Callum Voisin.

Voisin, the British rookie, would take a maiden pole position in the Formula 3 category and it would be a great lap. The Rodin Motorsport driver would set a 2:04.321 which would be the pole position time, and will go from pole position for Sunday's feature race.

Voisin would take pole position over a tenth clear of Irish driver Alex Dunne who would qualify second and on the front row. The McLaren junior of MP Motorsport would also secure his best qualifying in FIA Formula 3.

Championship contender Leonardo Fornaroli would fortunately start third, despite not making it to the timing line in time. Sebastian Montoya qualified fourth for Campos with Mexican driver Noel Leon qualifying in fifth place for Van Amersfoort Racing, and completing the top five.

Max Esterson would qualify in sixth place for the Jenzer Motorsport team ahead of Luke Browning who would qualify in seventh place for Hitech Pulse-Eight, with eighth place going to Trident's Sami Meguetounif.

Tim Tramnitz would finish ninth for MP Motorsport and the third Trident car of Santigao Ramos would complete the top 10. 

Championship leader Gabriele Mini would qualify 11th with Dino Beganovic in 12th, both drivers of Prema. Beganovic in 12th would provisionally start Saturday morning's sprint race from reverse grid pole, which would mean starting a second consecutive sprint race from pole position. 

ART debut driver Tuukka Taponen would qualify 13th and would just miss out on reverse grid pole for his first Formula 3 race. A great effort from the driver from Finland

Christian Mansell fifth in the championship would be 20th, while third in the championship Arvid Lindblad could only manage 27th in the order. Tough result for the pair and tough against their championship aspirations.

Action will return for the penultimate round of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship, round nine, on Saturday morning as the attention will turn to the sprint race around the Spa Francorchamps circuit. Action will start at 09:50 track time, which is 08:50 UK Time.
​

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Hitech Pulse-Eight and Williams Academy driver Luke Browning was fastest in a mixed conditions free practice session on Friday morning in Belgium, at the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit.

Browning was fastest in a session that saw wet and dry tyres used due to the change of conditions in the session.

The driver who is second in the championship was fastest ahead of Mexican driver Noel Leon of Van Amersfoort Racing, who finished in second place. ART driver Christian Mansell finished third in the final classification.

This weekend's round in Belgium is the penultimate round of the 2024 championship with the top seven in the drivers championship separated by just 30 points with Gabriele Mini of Prema leading the way.

It was time for the penultimate round of the championship in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship with a very tight drivers' championship fight and a teams' championship that could be determined by the end of the weekend.

Just 30 points would separate the top seven in the drivers' standings coming into the final two rounds of the season. The penultimate round of the season would see just seven points separating the top four in the standings, coming into the round with Gabriele Mini leading the standings.

Friday would roll around for the start of round nine, the practice and qualifying sessions to take place on the first day of three days of action at the weekend in Belgium, at the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit.

There would be a driver change made for the round, compared to the usual 30, as ART driver Nikola Tsolov would be banned for competing in another series before competing around the Spa circuit in he Formula 3 season. This would therefore according to the FIA F3 Sporting Regulations, give him an unfair advantage. Finland young Ferrari driver Tuukka Taponen would come in to make his debut.

To start off the day would be the free practice session at Spa. The green light would come on at the end of the pit lane to signal the start of the session and the drivers would head out to compete and get to grips with a wet Spa Francorchamps circuit.

With the first few laps on the board, Luke Browning who was coming into the round second in the standings would set the fastest time for Hitech Pulse-Eight. The Williams Academy driver would initially set a 2:22.089. Browning had beaten a time in the 2m23s set by Van Amersfoort's Tommy Smith.

Drivers would be finding grip and pace around the circuit, as the rain had stopped so the condition was improving on the circuit. Noel Leon would take second place in the early stages to go within three tenths of Browning's time.

However, the British talent Browning would improve his lap time to go by six tenths of a second, a 2:21.310 for Browning. He would be joined in the top two by Formula 3's most recent race winner Nikita Bedrin. 

Bedrin would be finding some great pace and would momentarily go fastest overall but would lose the lap to give Browning first back. The AIX Racing of Bedrin had exceeded track limits and therefore his lap time would be deleted.

The ART cars would find some pace and the two full-time drivers, Christian Mansell and Laurens Van Hoepen, would go second and third fastest respectively. Their teammate making his debut, Tuukka Taponen would go sixth fastest. A great effort from a driver in his first session of Formula 3.

It would be then for drivers to come into the pit lane and have a look at data as well as change tyres with just over 20 minutes remaining. After a couple of minutes, some drivers would head back out trying out the dry compound tyres.

Drivers would set lap times on the dry compound tyres but no driver would be really improving their time as the practice session entered the final 10 minutes of the session. That would be until Irish McLaren junior Alex Dunne would go fastest for MP Motorsport, in a great time from the driver.

It seemed like the track would start to improve as it would become an MP Motorsport 1-2 as Tim Tramnitz would go second quickest and be just eight thousandths of a second (0.008) off his teammate.

This would be until Sebastian Montoya who would go fastest, but would drop to second as Trident's Santiago Ramos would soon beat it as the times were vastly starting to improve at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, as the practice session entered the final few minutes.

Noel Leon's Van Amersfoort car would be next to go fastest with a 2:18.749, the Mexican driver has shown great one lap pace in 2024 with him shining in qualifying sessions in the past. Many drivers would beat this time but as the chequered flag came out Tim Tramnitz, the Red Bull junior, was provisionally fastest but drivers would look to go quicker.

By the time all drivers had completed their final laps in the session it would be championship contender Luke Browning with the fastest lap time, by a slim margin as he and many drivers would have to slow for yellow flags in the final couple of corners.

The incident would be an initial spin for Trident's Santiago Ramos and then Sami Meguetounif would go straight on at that bus stop chicane, meaning the yellow flags would be out for the final few laps. Ramos would get back going while Meguetounif would be stranded.

Browning did lift and not go full pace past the incident and would set the fastest time of the session at Spa Francorchamps, with a 2:15.570. The Williams Academy Hitech Pulse-Eight driver would set the quickest lap, only just. Browning was just 0.030s clear of Van Amersfoort's Noel Leon who was second fastest.

Christian Mansell would finish third place for ART and would complete the top three. Irish MP Motorsport Alex Dunne would end up finishing fourth with his MP Motorsport teammate Kacper Sztuka finding pace to finish fifth fastest and completed the top five.

Laurens Van Hoepen would finish sixth for ART Grand Prix ahead of Campos Racing's Sebastian Montoya. Tim Tramnitz in eighth place would make it all MP Motorsport cars inside the top 10. Leonardo Fornaroli and Martinius Stenshorne would complete the top 10.

A session with a lot of running completed and a change of track condition with the rain stopping, meaning that if it was to rain before qualifying, it could be a dramatic session with drivers being on the right tyres at the right time making it count the most.

Formula 3 action will return on Friday afternoon for the qualifying session with the hunt for pole position in the penultimate qualifying of the season. The session will begin at 15:05 track time, 14:05 UK time. It is one not to be missed, report to follow.

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal

Formula 3 returns once again this coming weekend for the penultimate round of the 2024 championship, as round nine of 10 will take place before the summer break, this weekend at the iconic Spa Francorchamps.

It will be the penultimate round of the 2024 season with just two rounds to go of the season and the championship battle really hotting up. One round will take place after the summer break, which will be in Monza in September and with the championship set to be decided there.

The driver's championship is set to be extremely tight heading into the final two rounds of the season with 22 points separating the top five in the championship, with the top three all failing to score a point in the most recent race last time out, which was the Hungary feature race.

Gabriele Mini comes into the penultimate round with the championship lead. The Italian Prema driver leads Luke Browning and his own Prema teammate Arvid Lindblad as the top three in the driver's standings are separated by just six points. 

Browning sits second in the standings, four points of the lead with Lindblad sitting third in the standings six points off Mini at the top of the championship. Trident's Leonardo Fornaroli sits just fourth in the standings and only seven points off the top of the championship.lead. All is very much still to play for.

Formula 3 will head once again for action this weekend and it will be for the penultimate round of the championship, which will take place around the iconic and legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, home of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix and many endurance and feeder series chamionships.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is often one that produces a lot of great drama across the weekend and has already produced some great FIA Formula 3 moments over the years. Formula 3 has visited Spa Francorchamps, in Belgium, every year in the history of the championship - since the championship became Formula 3 in 2019.

Drivers such as Logan Sargeant, Jack Doohan and Oliver Bearman have took victory in the Formula 3 Championship around the Spa Francorchamps circuit.

​The circuit is the longest in length on the Formula 3 calendar and is 7.004km long and made up of 19 corners that will prove to be great challenges to the drivers including the legendary Eau Rouge.

Two DRS zones make up the circuit with them operating down into La Source (Turn 1) and down the Kemmel Straight into Les Combes (turn 5).

The lap record was set in the inaugural season of FIA Formula 3, in 2019, with Jehan Daruvala holding the lap record, which is a 2:05.125.

When Formula 3 will get down to racing action this weekend, there will be 12 laps in Saturday's sprint race and 15 laps in Sunday's feature race.

The most recent Formula 3 round in Belgium, at the Spa Francorchamps circuit, was in the 2023 championship. The round was also the penultimate round of that year's championship. Very mixed weather conditions across the weekend produced some fantastic drama.

On Friday afternoon, when qualifying rolled around, it would be a very tight qualifying session, with less than a tenth separating the top three in classification. It would be Red Bull junior Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti who would take pole position for Campos Racing. The Spanish driver would take pole position with a 2:22.160.

Marti would have pole position ahead of Trident's Leonardo Fornaroli who was second, with Gabriele Mini finishing third for Hitech Pulse-Eight.

For the sprint race, a damp track would produce a lot of great excitement from start to finish with three safety car intervals over 12 laps of racing. The race would finish behind the safety car and it would be the Brazilian Caio Collet of Van Amersfoort Racing who would take the victory on Saturday morning.

Collet would keep his car on the road to take first place ahead of Jenzer Motorsport's Taylor Barnard, who came across the line to finish in second place. Prema Racing's Paul Aron would see out the top three and complete the podium.

The feature race would come on Sunday morning in a race that was very changeable in terms of weather conditions when the wet and dry tyres were on different cars, and different drivers were able to have better joy in different parts of the race.

After so much action it would be delight for Barnard and the British driver would take his maiden win in Formula 3 for Jenzer Motorsport as he would take victory in Belgium, ahead of Campos Racing's Christian Mansell, who would finish in second place after making over 20 places from where he started on the grid. Nikita Bedrin would make it a double Jenzer podium in third.

Ferrari Academy driver Tuukka Taponen will be set to make his Formula 3 debut this coming weekend at the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit, for round nine, in replacement of Bulgarian driver and Alpine Academy talent Nikola Tsolov.

Taponen will be replacing Tsolov at this weekend's round in Belgium at ART Grand Prix, the team who sit second in the Teams' Standings. Tsolov will be missing from the round due to being banned for this specific round all the way back in Imola, in May.

Tsolov would be banned because of gaining an unfair sporting advantage according to the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Sporting regulations, article 10.4. Article 10.4 states that drivers must have specific permission from the FIA  and series promoter Formula Motorsports Limited if they wish to participate in testing or race in other single-seater series' alongside F3.

The 17-year old competed in the Eurocup-3 season opener at Spa Francorchamps back in April, therefore breaching this rule. Tsolov would race in the opening round of the Eurocup-3 championship with Spanish team GRS. The Bulgarian driver had previously competed in that championship with GRS, after his rookie F3 season in 2023 had concluded.

Tsolov will therefore miss the round at Spa where he sits eighth in the standings.

In his place and set to make his Formula 3 debut, is young Finland driver and Ferrari Driver Academy member, 17-year old Tuukka Taponen. The 17-year old currently races for R-Ace GP in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, where he sits second in the standings behind championship leader Rafael Camara.

Taponen has picked up four wins in his career so far in FRECA and sitting second in the standings with four rounds to go and now the Finnish driver will make his FIA Formula 3 weekend debut, and will get to show what he can do in a Formula 1 support series, where the eyes of the world will be watching.

Last time out in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship, the series raced at the Hungaroring, in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, for round eight of 10 in the championship - joining FIA Formula 2 and the Porsche Supercup in acting as a support to the Formula One World Championship's Hungarian Grand Prix.

This would be a round after a week break from Silverstone, which was the final round of a triple header.

Round eight would begin as usual on a Friday with the practice and qualifying sessions taking place ahead of the Saturday sprint race and the Sunday feature race.

Topping the morning practice session would be the Campos driver of Mari Boya. The Spanish driver would finish fastest overall ahead of two Hitech Pulse-Eight cars. Norwegian Martinius Stenshorne would finish second ahead of his Williams Academy teammate Luke Browning who was third.

It would be a dramatic Friday afternoon qualifying session with Luke Browning finding the wall and bringing out the red flag late on in the session. Gabriele Mini and Arvid Lindblad would qualify outside the top 12 as they would be unable to set an additional time as the session would not be restarted. Mini would qualify 13th while Lindblad would be down in 21st at the final classification.

Initially Browning would end the session seventh and would start both races inside the all-important top 12. However, due to the new 2024 FIA F3 Sporting Regulations, as he was the cause of the red flag he would lose his best lap time set in the session. Browning would drop from seventh to 15th.

Josh Dufek would be disqualified for his car being below the minimum required weight as the AIX Racing Austrian driver initially qualified sixth. After the order had been ordered for the final classification, it would see Prema's Dino Beganovic start on reverse grid pole for the sprint race.

It would be a qualifying session that would see an ART 1-2 with Dutch driver Laurens Van Hoepen maintaining his top 12 qualifying finishes in every round so far this season. Van Hoepen would take his maiden Formula 3 pole position with Nikola Tsolov being second quickest. Leonardo Fornaroli would be third quickest for Trident.

Beganovic would start on pole with AIX Racing's Nikita Bedrin starting second on the grid. It would be Bedrin though who would take the top prize as the Italian took his maiden victory in FIA Formula 3.

Bedrin would take victory in an AIX Racing 1-2 as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would join his AIX Racing teammate to take his first Formula 3 points and his first podium. Inthraphuvasak would become the first driver in Formula 3 to be on the podium from Thailand.

​ A great achievement for Inthraphuvasak as AIX Racing would become the 10th team out of 10 on the grid to get a podium in the highly competitive 2024 Formula 3 season. Pole sitter for the sprint race Dino Beganovic would finish third for Prema.

For Sunday's feature race, it would be a great drive from Nikola Tsolov, who after taking the lead from Van Hoepen would do enough to keep him behind as the race finished behind the safety car.

Tsolov would take his first feature race win in Formula 3, as it would be an ART 1-2 in the initial classification with Van Hoepen taking second, with Noel Leon taking his feature race podium in third place for Van Amersfoort Racing.

However, after the race, Laurens Van Hoepen would be disqualified for his car being below the minimum required weight, as described by the regulations, therefore he would lose the second place finish.

This would promote Leon to second place with Leonardo Fornaroli taking the crucial third place to bring him into championship contention. The only points for Luke Browning in the sprint race would be the only points gained across the weekend for the top three in the standings. A great weekend for Fornaroli who would score points in both races.

​

With two rounds to go, the championship is heating up and incredibly tight in terms of the fight for individual glory, with so many drivers in a mathematical chance of championship glory in the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship.

As for the teams' standings, 97 points separate Prema at the top of the standings to ART Grand Prix in second place, with Prema seemingly favourites to take the title with the standings possible to be wrapped up by the end of this round, with all focus on the driver's standings by the final round in Monza, in September.

Just 30 points separate the top seven in the standings with just two rounds remaining and either one of the seven drivers could take the championship title by the time the championship season is concluded in the Monza feature race, in September.

Gabriele Mini comes into this round with the lead of the championship with 119 points and has the lead over Williams Academy Hitech talent Luke Browning, who is four points off the lead in second place. Arvid Lindblad sits third in the standings just six points off the championship lead.

Leonardo Fornaroli after a strong haul of points in Hungary is fourth in the standings, seven points from Mini in the championship standings. Seven points separating the top four i the standings, which is incredibly tight, Christian Mansell sits just 22 points off the championship lead in fifth.

Still 30 points separate the top seven in the standings with the potentially two outside challengers of Dino Beganovic in sixth and Oliver Goethe seventh in the standings. All is very much still to play for.

With so much on the line, and such an intense championship battle, you do not want to miss round nine of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, with the weekend's action kicking off on Friday morning for free practice. Action getting underway at 09:45am track time for free practice with the start time for UK viewers being one hour earlier at 08:45am.

Track Times

• Free Practice 26/07: 09:45-10:30
• Qualifying 26/07: 15:05-15:35
• Sprint Race 27/07: 09:50-10:30
• Feature Race 28/07: 08:30-09:15

UK Times

• Free Practice 26/07: 08:45-09:30
• Qualifying 26/07: 14:05-14:35
• Sprint Race 27/07: 08:50-09:30
• Feature Race 28/07: 07:30-09:15

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

Nikola Tsolov wins his third grand prix of 2024 as ART finish the Hungarian feature race in 1-2 with Van Hoepen 2nd, Van Amersfoort Racing pick up a podium with Noel Leon completing the top 3. Van Hoepen and Leon collecting maiden feature race podiums.

Fornaroli just misses out on a podium but receives a chunk of points as he closes out on the top 3 in the title standings, Mini, Browning and Lindblad going without points today with two rounds left of the season. Spa and Monza.

Santiago Ramos reported on the formation laps that drops of rain are appearing, with cool track temperature at 27.6 degrees celsius.

ART drivers Van Hoepen and Tsolov starting on the front row, Tsolov getting the better start to take the lead on the opening lap. Further back in the pack Loake is straight on the radio reporting a puncture and is forced into an early pit.

The action increases on lap 2 as Loake and Meguetounif pit for new tyres following punctures and Wurtz is in for a new front wing as DRS opens for those battling out on track, Van Hoepen chasing his front position back. Goethe one of many to reap the benefits with a dive down the outside of Inthraphuvasak to get into the top 10, Mansell gets past Ramos and Championship leader Mini goes ahead of Boya and Browning.

While a run of bad luck continues for Wurtz who is forced to retire just 2 laps later.

Boya fights back not letting his position go easily but Mini isn't prepared to give it back, Van Hoepen is yet to be successful in his campaign for his starting position out front as Tsolov looks comfortable leading. 

Bronwen Jones
Writer @ F1 Journal

A fantastic Hungary sprint race, in FIA Formula 3, saw Nikita Bedrin take his maiden victory in the category, in a history AIX Racing 1-2 on Saturday.

Bedrin won the race after starting on the front row of the grid, ahead of his teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak who would take his maiden points and podium in the category. Inthraphuvasak would also become the first driver from Thailand to score a podium in the category. 

AIX Racing become the 10th team to score a podium in 2024, meaning every team on the grid has done so in the first eight rounds of the season.

Dino Beganovic would finish third for Prema Racing after starting on reverse grid pole position.His teammates Gabriele Mini and Arvid Lindblad, the top two in the championship heading into the round, would fail to score.

Third in the championship Luke Browning would up to second, above Lindblad, despite only scoring three points.

​After a week break following on from a triple header formula 3 returning to action around eight of the 2024 championship at the hungering circuit in Budapest.

Round eight is one of two rounds before the summer break with a week at spa Francorchamps coming up in the F3 championship.

Saturday morning would see the Sprint race take place after both race grids were set in the Friday afternoon qualifying session. After Mari Boya topped free practice in the morning session qualifying would throw up some dramatic moments.

Taking pole position would be ART Grand Prix and Dutch Driver Lawrence Van Houten. He would set the fastest time by over 2/10 of a second just moments before Luke Browning brought out a red flag after crashing.

Browning because he caused the red flag, would lose his best lap time due to the new 2024 FIA F3 sporting regulations. Also in the post race investigations by the stewards, AIX racing’s Joshua Dufek would be disqualified as his car was below the minimum weight.

Both Dufek and Browning would drop out of the top 12 in classification therefore having an affect on the grid for both races including the Saturday morning sprint, where the top 12 are reversed to set the grid.

Taking the reverse grid pole position would be Dino Beganovic, the Prema driver would be in search for his second win of the year. Starting on the front row alongside him would be Nikita Bedrin of AIX Racing. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak would have his best personal start in third.

All 30 cars would take to the grid for the race with excitement building in Budapest. It was time to go racing in the sprint race at the Hungaroring in Formula 3. There would be two formation laps as the first start would be aborted. An issue for Joseph Loake initially going to a spot on the wrong side of the grid, he would try and correct it but would be parked incorrectly. Race Control therefore made the decision to abort the start. The race distance would be 18 laps.

The lights would go out and racing would be underway in Budapest and a great start for Beganovic would have him the lead into the first corner but Bedrin would get a great run out of the corner and pass around the outside of turn 2, which would be for the inside of turn 3. Bedrin taking the lead of the race.

Further back on the opening lap, Matias Zagazeta of Jenzer Motorsport would pick up suspension damage after making contact with Mari Boya. He would come to a stop in turn 11 after having contact being made with his rear by Tommy Smith of Van Amersfoort Racing. Zagazeta would pull off the road and the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) would be brought out to move the broken down Jenzer.

At the restart, Nikola Tsolov of ART and Trident's Santiago Ramos would make contact. Ramos with a puncture and front wing damage for Tsolov. Both would pit.

Joseph Loake would be handed a 10 second stop/go penalty for failing to come into the pit lane, to start the race, after he was the cause of the aborted start. A race ruining moment for the Rodin Motorsport driver, as Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak of AIX Racing would come together.

The battle was hotting up for third as Inthraphuvasak and Voisin would engage in battle on lap 6, with Voisin's move to the inside of turn 2 and the two would make small contact but would both avoid damage.Tim Tramnitz and Christian Mansell, who were fifth and sixth, were closing up on this battle.

Lap 8 of the race and Mansell would make a dive down the inside on Tim Tramnitz into turn 1, but would go too deep and went wide of the exit and would concede the place to the MP Motorsport of Tramnitz. There would also be a move from Luke Browning at that corner on Sami Meguetounif. Browning would get ahead and complete the move cleanly and would be up into ninth.

Meanwhile in the battle out front, Beganovic was getting the hurry up from Prema and was told to apply the pressure to Nikita Bedrin in a hope for a mistake from the AIX Racing driver out front.

Onto lap 10 of the race and a move was made by Beganovic as he looked to go down the inside of Bedrin in an attempt to take the lead but would clip the curb at turn 2 and misjudge the pass. He went wide and would rejoin in third place behind the AIX of Inthraphuvasak. It was an AIX Racing 1-2.

Further back, a battle would occur between Callum Voisin and Tim Tramnitz for fourth place in the race. Voisin would keep the position by going off track at turn 6 and would therefore concede the place in the risk of a penalty.

A loss of position for Voisin would not spell good for him as he would start to lose more time in the race and would drop down the order as a result of it. Lap 12 and he would drop to sixth behind Mansell, who was up into fifth.

Browning was looking to make progress after having work to do, starting in 15th for both races. He would be looking to get ahead of championship rival Leonardo Fornaroli for seventh.

Beganovic and Inthraphuvasak were beginning to drop back from the driver in front of them. Beganovic was trying to find a way to get back ahead of Inthraphuvasak for second as Nikita Bedrin was trying to measure his advantage out in front.

​Voisin was having more trouble and he would run wide at turn 11 and would thankfully just manage to keep it ahead of Fornaroli who had caught up behind him.

Out in front, Bedrin had measured the race brilliantly. It had not been the easiest season for the AIX driver and had been finding it difficult to strike consistent form in the 2024 championship of Formula 3. AIX Racing, his team, were the only team to not score a podium in the season but Bedrin would go one better.

Nikita Bedrin would see the flag first to take his maiden win in the category in his second season. It would be a fantastic moment for him but a fantastic moment too for Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. He would become the first Thai driver to take a podium in FIA Formula 3, as he made it an AIX Racing 1-2 with his first points of his Formula 3 career.

It would be third for Dino Beganovic of Prema but after starting on pole, the Ferrari Academy driver would have been hoping for a better result. Tim Tramnitz of MP Motorsport and Christian Mansell of ART Grand Prix would complete the top five. Tramnitz finished fourth ahead of Mansell in fifth.

Voisin would finish sixth and managed to keep Fornaroli and Browning behind, who finished seventh and eighth respectively. Laurens Van Hoepen and Sami Meguetounif completed the top 10 in an action-packed Formula 3 sprint race at the Hungaroring.

It will be Van Hoepen who will start from pole position in the next Formula 3 race, which is to come on Sunday morning. The feature race will be the next race to take place in the 2024 championship and it will conclude round eight at the Hungaroring. 

Action will commence at 08:25 track time, 07:25 UK time.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal

​After the Friday afternoon Formula 3 qualifying at the Hungaroring in Budapest, several drivers have been penalised including a disqualification for AIX Racing's Joshua Dufek and the lap time deletion for Luke Browning.

Browning and Dufek have both been penalised by the event's Stewards for being in breach of the regulations, with Browning losing his best lap time and Dufek being disqualified.

The pair are joined by the two Polish drivers, Kacper Sztuka of MP Motorsport and Piotr Wisnicki of Rodin Motorsport - in being penalised after qualifying took place.

Speaking of Beganovic, he had allegedly been impeded by the Rodin Motorsport car of Polish driver Piotr Wisnicki. This matter would be referred to the Stewards after the qualifying session in Budapest.

It was determined by the Stewards that Wisnicki had unnecessarily impeded Beganovic in the 30-minute session. The Stewards, in their investigation, would speak to both drivers and team representatives as well as reviewing all relevant evidence.

Wisnicki would be handed a three-place grid penalty for the next Formula 3 event of which the Rodin driver is to compete. That is set to be the Saturday morning sprint race in Budapest.​

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal