Official F1 Journal Formula 3 Feature Race Round Up- Australia

Feature Race

Fornaroli lead from the line with Mini close behind and Beganovic pressuring him around the outside of turn 1 for 2rd. Lindblad was up to 6th off the start and Inthraphuvasak was off into the gravel at turn 1 after contact with Tramnitz who got a puncture from the contact. Yellow flags were out Loake and Smith after they came together at turn 12 and both got beached in the gravel. Loake tried to go around the outside of Smith at turn 11 and could not pull it off  making contact with a pretty innocent Smith at his home Grand Prix. Fornaroli broke the DRS range from Mini in 2nd and was 1.4 second down the road when the Safety car was deployed for the incident with Smith and Loake. Mansell got a solid start and after going deep on the brakes at turn 1 making up a couple of places. 

Lap 6- We were racing again Fornaroli backed the pack up before making his run at turn 11 sprinting away to try and stop any move into turn 1, Bedrin was under attack from Browning who after a great move in to turn 1 was past him and into 4th, Bedrin quickly lost another place to Lindblad after trying to defend the move from Browning putting him down to 6th. Mansell was side by side with Van Hoepen in to turn 11 with Mansell pass for 9th, Leon got passed Tsolov for 13th and Boya tried to defend up the inside of turn 3 but Goethe got passed him and was on the hunt for Bedrin in 6th. Wurz put a mega move on Van Hoepen for 10th and Leon and Stenshourne came together at turn 13 both going off and rejoining down the field but Leon suffered damage to his front wing. The action was frenetic and non stop!!
Lap 9 Fornaroli had not run away from Mini the way he did off the start and was still within DRS range of the Prema car. 

Boya was very close to Goethe as lap 11 started with Mansell right behind them ready to pounce as they fought ahead. Wurz was now on the back of Van Hoepen(10th)  quickly passing him, followed by Montoya. Wurz was then straight on the back of Mansell and again with Montoya following him through they both passed Mansell just corners later. At the same time Boya finally got the move done on Goethe who had over worked his tyres early in the race and was suffering much earlier than the cars around him.
Lap 12 Beganovic closed and passed team mate Mini for 2nd place and was immediately closing on Fornaroli ahead. Mini was in trouble with Browning passing him just a lap after Beganovic did, he like Goethe having tyre issues with 11 laps to go.
Lap 14 Beganovic put in an incredible lap  to close the 1.2 second gap to Fornaroli passing him very quickly for the lead, Fornaroli didn't put up to much of a fight letting him past with the hope he could use the DRS to get back past later in the race. Montoya was past Wurz for 7th and was on a mission to do what he didn't yesterday and finish as far into the top 10 as physically possible. ​

After swapping places Montoya & Wurz continued their push forward together passing Boya one after the other and were up to 5th & 6th. Lindblad who had a great start had cooked his tyres to early causing him to dropped down the pack to 11th and out of the points. 
Lap 18 Goethe passed Bedrin for 8th into turn 1 as all the drivers really started to struggle on their tyres trying to push them as far and as fast as possible.
Beganovic had not managed to make a gap to Fornaroli, and was now under pressure from the Pole man, who seemed to be biding his time before he made the move for the lead. Browning who had initially started to catch the front pair, had fallen back & out of DRS range but in to the path of Mini who was looking to get back in to the podium positions 

Wurz passed Montoya to take 5th and pulled out a 3 second gap back to the Columbian in 6th. 
Lap 22 Mini made the move on Browning for 3rd, going around the outside of the Williams Academy driver into turn 12 and was now 1.3 seconds back from the leading 2 cars. Fornaroli couldn't stay with the pace of Beganovic in his Prema and was 1.5 seconds back when they started the last lap of the race and after 1 more lap Dino Beganovic won his first race in FIA Formula 3 followed by Fornaroli in 2nd and Mini in 3rd. Browning brought the car home in 4th, Wurz and Montoya were 5th & 6th & Boya, Bedrin, Goethe, & Mansell completed the top 10. Lindblad despite a strong start to his race only managed 11th.
​ 

Feature Race Result

1 BEG                     2 FOR +1.682
3 MIN +3.221          4 BRO +4.050
5 WUR +16.958      6 MON +21.230
7 BOY +21.492       8 BED +25.610
9 GOE26.530         10 MAN +26.785
11 LIN +27.009       12 MEG +29.437
13 VAN +29.512     14 EST +30.441
15 TRA +33.023     16 DUN +34.067
17 ZAG +37.812    18 SZT +38.222
19 TSO +42.693     20 SHI +44.080
21 VOI +52.748      22 DUF +1'01.595
23 WIS +1'09.926   24 RAM +1'10.635
25 LEO +1'14.235   FLO DNF
SMI DNF                 LOA DNF
INT DNF

Drivers Championship
​ Standings 

1 BRO- 37        2 FOR- 37 
3 MIN- 32         4 BEG- 28
5 LIN- 23          6 TRA- 21
7 MAN- 20        8 VAN- 18
9 BOY- 17        10 MEG-13
11 GOE-11       12 MON- 11
13 STE- 10       14 WUR- 10
15 RAM- 10      16 TSO- 7
17 DUN- 6        18 EST- 5
19 BED- 4         20 LEO- 0
21 LOA- 0         22 ZAG- 0
23 SZT- 0          24 INT- 0
25 VOI- 0          26 FLO- 0
27 SHI- 0          28 DUF- 0
​29 SMI- 0          30 WIS- 0

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @f1journal.co.uk