Sami Meguetounif and Nikita Bedrin handed penalties post-race after F3 sprint in Barcelona

After a Formula 3 sprint race in Barcelona that produced chaos on Saturday, Nikita Bedrin and Sami Meguetounif were handed penalties post race.

Meguetounif and Bedrin were both handed grid penalties for Sunday’s feature race after their respective incidents on lap 3 of the sprint race at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya.

It was a sprint race that saw home favourite Mari Boya take the victory on home soil for his maiden Formula 3 victory.

Boya became the ninth different winner in nine races in 2024 and the 50th winner in the history of the FIA Formula 3 Championship.

He finished ahead of Ireland’s Alex Dunne, who was second. Dunne became the first driver in FIA Formula 3 history from the Republic of Ireland to get onto the podium.

Boya’s Campos teammate Oliver Goethe completed the podium in third.

Meguetounif has been handed a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s feature race in Barcelona after being “wholly responsible” for causing a collision with his Trident teammate Santiago Ramos.

The pair were first and second with Ramos in the lead. The two were fighting for position into turn 1 and Meguetounif got it all wrong – careering into teammate Ramos.

Meguetounif will serve this penalty in the feature race and will start 16th as he would have started in 11th without the penalty.

On the other hand, AIX Racing’s Italian driver Nikita Bedrin was handed a grid penalty for causing a collision with Callum Voisin – shortly after the Meguetounif and Ramos collision.

Bedrin was handed a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision which left both his AIX Racing car and Voisin’s Rodin Motorsport out of the race.

The Stewards heard from both drivers and teams representatives and felt that Bedrin was predominantly to blame for the pair coming together.

AIX Racing’s Bedrin was therefore handed the three-place penalty for the collision which will be served in Sunday’s feature race in Barcelona.

​Formula 3 will return to action in Sunday’s feature race at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 journal