F3 - Pirelli Grosser Preis der Steiermark: Event Analysis
Qualifying:
Prema was back at it for the second round of the FIA F3 season for the Styrian Grand Prix, with Frederik Vesti securing pole by 0.123s ahead of Trident’s David Beckmann. It was the start to the weekend that Vesti needed, after finishing the Austrian Grand Prix the worst off of the Prema drivers, being in joint 4th in the championship with 17 points.
Vesti’s teammate Logan Sargeant won the provisional pole after the first set of laps, with the session being split by a red flag for Charouz’s Igor Fraga, who pulled off the road on the entry to Turn 1.
After the stoppage however, American Sargeant’s car wouldn’t restart for the final 5mins of the session. This meant that as the track evolution improved, both Vesti and Beckmann were able to jump him, with Sargeant ending up in P3.
ART’s 16-year old Theo Pourchaire had a much better qualifying than at the Austrian Grand Prix, finishing in P5, with Trident’s Olli Caldwell impressing in P8.
Austrian GP Feature Race winner Oscar Piastri was P4 and slowest of the Premas, with Austrian GP Sprint Race winner Liam Lawson rounding out the top 10 for Hitech GP.
Feature Race:
The first F3 race of the weekend got underway in wet conditions on Saturday, with Sargeant making a poor start from P3, while Zendeli went from 6th to 2nd into Turn 1. He then make a charge on Vesti into Turn 3 however the Prema driver held onto the lead.
ART’s Aleksandr Smolyar suffered a front wing and suspension failure down the start-finish straight on Lap 4, pulling off the road into retirement at Turn 3. On the VSC restart, both Zendeli and Beckmann running in P2 and P3 for Trident ran wide at the penultimate corner, however both kept their position.
Carlin’s Clement Novalak suffered a puncture on Lap 9, spinning out of the race at the final corner and causing a Safety Car. The restart happened on Lap 12 but in dramatically worsening conditions, however that didn’t stop Trident’s Olli Caldwell making a bold move on Piastri for P4.
Then just a lap later, Charouz’s Roman Stanek went off at the penultimate corner, causing another Safety Car, in which ART’s Sebastian Fernandez was caught out by due to the spray and crashed.
The race was then red flagged on Lap 13 and not resumed due to worsening weather conditions, with the results taken from a countback to Lap 11, meaning Frederik Vesti took his maiden FIA F3 win, with Zendeli and Beckmann making it a maximum 9 drivers from 3 races standing on the podium so far in FIA F3 2020:
Sprint Race:
HWA’s Jake Hughes looked to get his difficult season kickstarted with the reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race, however ART’s Theo Pourchaire won the start into Turn 1. Hughes then came back at Pourchaire but wasn’t able to retake the lead.
Onto Lap 4 however and Hitech’s Liam Lawson was getting stuck in the lead battle too, making it 3-wide into Turn 4 with Pourchaire and Hughes, and succeeded in making the move stick to take the lead. Hughes would only take 1 lap however to retake the lead from the Red Bull junior.
Carlin’s Novalak went off at in spectacular fashion on Lap 6, launching off the Turn 6 exit kerb and getting impressive air before running into the gravel. He managed to rejoin the circuit but with damage after the impact with the kerb.
On Lap 9, another car went off the road, this time it was Fernandez who was hit off in a battle with Trident’s Zendeli at Turn 4, to continue a difficult season for the Venezuelan.
The battle for the lead continued between Hughes and Lawson, with Lawson retaking the lead on Lap 11 into Turn 4, just before a Safety Car was deployed after a crash between Campos’ Sophia Flöresch and ART’s Aleksandr Smolyar, putting Flöresch out of the race.
On the restart, the Prema teammates of Vesti, Fewtrell and Piastri battled over P8, while Hughes and Lawson re-engaged their battle for the win. Hughes lunged up the inside of Lawson into Turn 3, with Lawson repassing him into Turn 4 moments later.
However, with just 3 laps to go, Hughes and Lawson collided at Turn 4, with Hughes going off and narrowly avoided a massive crash with MP’s Richard Verschoor as he rejoined out of control. Both Lawson and Hughes went out with broken suspension, and at the same time the VSC was deployed for an unrelated incident/
This gave the win to Theo Pourchaire, who lead the field home in a Safety Car finish to become the youngest winner in FIA Formula 3, ahead of Prema’s Logan Sargeant and Trident’s David Beckmann.
The full results for the Sprint Race can be seen below:
This meanst that after the opening 2 events of the season, Prema top the championship in both Drivers' and Constructors', with Vesti leading Piastri by just 1 point, however Beckmann lies 11 points behind in 3rd. The full Drivers' and Constructors' Championship standings can be viewed below:
