F3 – 2020 Aramco Magyar Nagydíj: Event Analysis
Qualifying:
The initial qualifying session for Formula 3 took place in torrential rain, and after several cars aquaplaned off the circuit in the same location, the session was abandoned and rescheduled for 5 hours later.
When the session finally got underway for real, the rain was still falling heavily, but at least it was drivable, and no one proved more so than Alexander Smolyar, who took his maiden F3 pole for ART by a quarter of a second over Prema’s Logan Sargeant, who were locked in a battle for pole all session.
Vesti and Pourchaire seemingly were struggling, and only managed to put together a clean lap right at the end of the session, with Pourchaire taking P3 ahead of fellow Styria winner Vesti.
Jenzer’s Calan Williams put a stunning laptime in to qualify P5, in a car that has proven to be a long way down the order, with his best qualifying result from Austria being P23.
Olli Caldwell qualifying in torrential rain
Feature Race:
The first race of the weekend got underway in damp conditions, and that proved to cause chaos at Turn 1.
Sargeant locked the rear tyres and span into Turn 1, making contact with fellow front row sitter Smolyar, taking the Russian out of the race.
The Jenzer of Williams was spun by the MP of Bent Viscaal, and collected by Vesti and the Trident of Olli Caldwell, with Sargeant also being hit by the spinning Jenzer.
The Safety Car was deployed, and Pourchaire inherited the lead after the Turn 1 chaos.
On the restart, ART’s Fernandez suffered a huge lockup into Turn 1 and almost wiped out Liam Lawson. Everyone behind then locked up in unison, and all became clear as to why, when Lawson’s Hitech seemingly hit 88mph with the rear of the car blowing up in flames, leaving a trail of fire as he spilt fuel all over the circuit in dramatic fashion.
Liam Lawson suffering a massive engine failure
This caused the race to be suspended as the oil was cleared and cement dust laid so that cars could race again in the first sector.
On the restart, the MPs of Viscaal and Verschoor battled through the dust with Viscaal coming out on top of the 2019 Macau GP winner, while behind Enzo Fittipaldi made a stunning double overtake on both Alex Peroni and Max Fewtrell at Turn 2 and 3.
However all his work was about to be undone, as he was given a drive through penalty for ‘leaving the fast lane during race suspension’, costing him his first points of the season.
Onto Lap 15 and Verschoor made a late dive on Fernandez for P4, making the move stick at Turn 1 on a very acute line.
However he wasn’t safe, as the MP teammates of Verschoor and Viscaal battled onto the final lap of the race over P4, Viscaal making an amazing move around the outside of Turn 2 to stick his car up the inside into the fast Turn 3, to gain his best ever result in FIA F3.
Meanwhile, it was the 16 year-old Theo Pourchaire who dominated the Hungarian Feature Race by over 12s, and becoming the first repeat winner of the season at the same time, as Piastri and Sargeant rounded out the podium, despite Sargeant’s antics into Turn 1 on Lap 1.
The Feature Race results can be seen below:
Sprint Race:
Race 2 of the weekend for Formula 3 was in very wet conditions on Sunday Morning, with Beckmann starting on pole.
The German won the start convincingly, with Red Bull junior Dennis Hauger trying to overtake up the inside of Turn 2, only to come under threat from Clement Novalak. However he fended off the Carlin driver into Turn 4.
After scoring his first points in F1 on Saturday, Hauger was looking to take his first win on Sunday, making another challenge into Turn 2 on Lap 2, this time around the outside of Beckmann, and successfully made the move stick.
Bent Viscaal was also having his best weekend in F3 to date, and was on a charge early on in the race, however he misjudged a move on Charouz’s Igor Fraga and span the eSports legend out at Turn 12, with Viscaal being given a 5 second penalty as a result.
After his gargantuous fire in the Feature Race, Liam Lawson suffered further engine issues on Sunday and was forced to stop at the side of the circuit, putting him out of the race.
On the restart, Viscaal made an incredible move around the outside of his teammate Richard Verschoor at Turn 1, before diving it up the inside of Sargeant at Turn 2 and passing him around the outside of Turn 3.
On the same lap, Viscaal went from P6 to P3, as he dived Novalak in the unconventional overtaking spot at the final corner. A few laps later, he made another move around the outside at Turn 1, this time on Beckmann for P2.
Title contender Frederik Vesti suffered a blow to his title chances, after contact with Jack Doohan broke his front left suspension and put him out of the race.
On the final corner of Lap 13, Viscaal made another move, this time for the race lead, successfully passing Dennis Hauger, and set off to build a 5 second plus gap to overcome the 5 second penalty he has for taking out Fraga.
This was aided by Hauger and Beckmann battling each other for P2, with contact being made at Turn 1 on Lap 17, but somehow they got away without damage. Beckman found his way past out of Turn 1 with Oscar Piastri taking advantage by passing Hauger on the final corner of that lap.
However, with 3 laps to go, Viscaal received another 5 second penalty, taking his total up to 10 seconds, for ‘leaving the track and gaining an advantage’ when he passed Sargeant around the outside of Turn 3 earlier in the race.
And any chance of trying to pull the gap out to 10 seconds ahead of P2 were taken away on the very same lap, as Federico Malvestiti crashed to bring out the Safety Car.
As a result, the race ended under the Safety Car, with Bent Viscaal taking the win on track, but his 10 second time penalty cruelly dropped him down to P17, with David Beckmann taking his and Trident’s first win of 2020, and Dennis Hauger taking his maiden FIA F3 podium.
Beckmann delighted with his win in Hungary
The Sprint Race results can be seen below:
The full Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings after Round 3 are as follows (NB: Styria Feature Race was awared half points, standings have been amended duly):
