Official F1 Journal Formula 3 Thursday Round Up- Bahrain

Welcome to the 2024 Formula 3 Championship, 1st stop Bahrain. We start the season with some familiar faces and a lot of new comers, testing was eventful and only only managed to amplify the excitement about this series and the talent that currently resides within it. 
A change to the Qualifying for F3 and F2 debuts today with there being heavy consequences for causing a flag during the session, from now on if a car stops on track or brings out a flag that car will no longer be able to participate in the session and their fastest time will be deleted.
After the 1st days running here is how it all shook out............

Practice

It was a busy but short lived start to the session for the 13 returning drivers and 17 rookies, with all the cars coming out for at least 1 lap but then all returning to the Pitlane to do set up changes or a short de brief. It wasn't till there was just 23 minutes on the clock that we saw the field come back out onto the track lead by Sheild. Running was calm and all the drivers seemed to be getting a solid practice session in until with 12 minutes to go Gabrieli Mini brought out yellow flags, before they were escalated to a Red flag to recover his car. It seemed to be a car issue rather than a driver error that sent the 2nd year Veteran of F3 backwards into the gravel trap.

Running began again with under 10 minutes left of the first Practice session of the year and all the cars took to the track to get their Qualifying simulations in before this afternoons shoot out. 
​

Fornaroli was top of the times until Luke Browning beat his time by 3 tenths. Olli Goethe set a great time to put himself into the top 5 but his time and the time of Sophia Floresch (14th) were deleted meaning they ended the session 29th & 30th. Seb Montoya could only manage 25th, Beganovich put his car in 3rd and new comer to F3 and son of F1 driver Alex Wurz, Charlie Wurz had a great first session to put his car in 6th. 
All in all unless you are Mini it was a good session and we looked forward to the 1st Qualifying of the season. 

Practice Result 

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

Qualifying 

fDespite a flurry of cars leaving the pits as soon as the lights went green many of the car dived back into the pits for car issues like |Ollie Goethe who car turned off and back on over a curb and others for set up changes. Fornerolli went top 1st but was quickly beaten by Rookie Esterson. Geothe came back out for another run but the car was still off the pace which we know Olli is not. After everyone set their banker times we saw them all return to the pits to prepare for their final Qualigying runs.  

16 minutes on the clock and we saw the whole grid come out together and with all 30 cars on track going for their 1st attack lap. 
Montoya's lock up at turn 8 hurt his lap and put him 14th when he crossed the line, Mansell could only manage 2nd to Boya who topped the times till Fornaroli took it from him in his Trident car, Beganovic going 2nd fastest as we started to see laps being deleted for Sophia Florsch, Esterson and many others. After the 1st push runs the top 3 was Forneroli, Beganovic & Meguetounif.

4 minutes remaining and the cars went out for their final runs of Qualifying. Mansell leads them around all on new tyres and ready to set their best laps hoping to start as they mean to go on and take that 1st pole of the year. Browning goes purple in sector 1, Mansell went purple sector 2, until Beganovic beat his middle sector, Mansell tops the time until he was beanten by Browning and the Beganovic took the top spot, Mini managed 3rd. Charlie Wurz finished in 16th ahead of Oliver Goethe in 17th nt what we know he can do. Fornaroli finished in 6th after a big slide at the exit of turn 1 but it was Beganovic and the Prema team who took the first Pole of the  Formula 3 2024 

© FIA Formula 3 

---

Qualifying Result 

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

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk