Official F1 Journal Formula 3 Features Race Round Up

Saturday Catch Up

Saturday at Spa for the F3 grid was a wet one. The Sprint Race saw 3 safety car interventions and ultimately ended behind it.
Bortoleto had a real chance to win the drivers Championship this weekend with strong results in both races but rivals in the form of Zak O'sullivan, Josep Marti & Paul Aron were hoping to put a stop to that and take the championship to the last race of the season at Monza. 
Bortoleto had alot of work to do after qualifying 15th and his rivals all starting in the reverse top 12 grid. 
A first lap incident between Montoya & Villagomez brought out the first safety car after a frantic start where Caio Collet managed to make the move for the lead before the S/C was called. On the restart Collet pulled away and maintained the lead until an ambitious move from Mini on Marti ended his race and when after keeping the car going Marti attempted to rejoin the circuit, he drove straight into the path of unsuspecting Cohen who took a huge hit. Leaving a very apologetic & frustrated Marti thinking he was out of the championship fight. At the same time fellow championship contender O'Sullivan was forced to leave the track at the top of Eau Rouge and was later found to have gained an advantage and was issued a 5 second penalty after the race. 
Lap 9 Saw the Championship leader get tagged to turn 1 by Beganovic which damaged his car and forced him to retire on the Kemmel straight. This brought out the 3rd and final Safety car with 3 laps to go and that is how the race ended.  

F3 Sprint Race Result

1-CCO       
2-BAR
3-ARON   
4-EDG
5-FCO     
6-BAR
7-TSO       
8-BRO
9-FOR     
10-SAU
11-BED
12-FLO
13-FRE
14-SIM
15-O'SUL (PEN)
16-BOY
17-FAR
18-GAR
19-MAN
​20-GRA

Sunday Feature Race Round Up

The feature race started on a wet track and after the start had been delayed the Safety car lead the pack around the formation lap for a rolling start. If Championship leader Bortoleto finished the race with a 40 point lead minimum he would wrap up the Championship today at Spa.
The primary strategy was thought to the dry tyre but 8 very brave drivers donned the wet tyres to start the race and boy was that the right choice. 

The race started as the grid crossed the line for a rolling start and immediately the wet tyres runners started to carve through the field with the car of Aron going from 11th to the lead by turn 7, others such as Montoya, Mansell and Sophia Floersch were also moving forward rapidly with Sophia up to 7th from 24th, what a mega couple of laps she had. 
After an incident with Shin on the first lap Bortoleto was down in 21st.
Lap 4 saw the first safety car for the crashed car of Goethe ending his spa weekend with a double DNF and to recover the beached car of Faria from the gravel after he was on a great run from 30th up to 10th. it was at this point race leader Aron pit for slicks and ultimately ended his chances of victory as after the Safety car came in on lap 7/15 it became clear that contrary to predicted stint length the wet tyres were holding on better than anyone expected .
On the restart Mansell began his hunt for the lead chasing Barnard hard and they battled right to the end with Mansell all but hounding young Barnard every lap till the last 2 were Barnard pulled enough of a gap to win comfortably.
The last few laps saw great racing with Bortoleto fighting his was up to 11th but still took no points. championship rival O'Sullivan had a tough feature race and was over taken by Bortoleto in the closing laps and finished 12th. Montoya over took Fornaroli to finish 5th and there was great racing between Marti & Franco Colapinto to close the race.
So the Championship goes onto the last race of the season after Bortoleto failed to score in either race this weekend.
And making history today Sophia Floersch became the first female driver to score points in FIA Formula 3. massive congratulations to her and the PHM team. 

​    

1- BAR        2-MAN
3-BED         4-GAR
5-CCO         6-MON
7-FLO          8-ARO
9-MAR        10-FCO
11-BOR       12-OSU
13-BOY       14-FOR
15-FRE        16-BEG
17-TSO        18-SMI
19-EDG        20-SAU
21-VIL          22-BAR
23-BRO       24-SIM
25-SHIN
DNF'S
GRA
COH
FAR
GOE
MIN
FASTEST LAP- 2.18.289 SAU L15
Post Race Penalties- SIM- STOP/GO converted to 30 second time added to race time 

Drivers Championship Standings After Spa 

Bortoleto- 144
Aron-        106  -38
Marti-        105 -37
O'Sullivan-101 -143
Colapinto-  100 -44
​