Dino Beganovic takes win with Prema 1-2 in Belgium sprint race at Spa Francorchamps! Formula 3 sprint race report: Round 9 - Belgium

Dino Beganovic (pictured) after taking victory in Spa Francorchamps. Credit: Joe Portlock via Getty Images

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

How the Belgium Formula 3 sprint race unfolded

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.

2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship: Round 9 - Belgium sprint race provisional classification

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

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal