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F3 heads to Austria for round six of its 2024 season, who was victorious around the notorious circuit?
A tight battle out on track for victory between two teammates. Photo credits: Formula 3 via XHeading into the weekend, Leonardo Fornaroli leads the standings with 84 points, with a mere five points splitting himself and Luke Browning up.
Qualifying occurred on Friday afternoon with Browning snatching pole with a 1:20.222. Arvid Lindblad and Tim Tramnitz rounded out the Feature race’s top three. For Saturday’s Sprint race, the top 12 are reversed with Martinius Stenshorne starting in reverse pole position.
How we start tomorrow's Spielberg Sprint ?
What are your podium predictions? ?#F3 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/RgW0Ew3P28
— Formula 3 (@Formula3) June 28, 2024
With all 30 drivers looking for glory in Austria, only one can be victorious, who was crowned in the Sprint race?
As it happened
The five lights counted down and the 30 drivers shot off the line, Stenshorne was caught off guard by Christian Mansell who led the pack into Turn 1. However, Stenshorne wasn’t done just yet, running alongside the Australian but Mansell held onto his lead.
LAP 1 / 21
Dino Beganovic spins at the first turn and drops to 25th! ⬇️
Kacper Sztuka also gets caught up and is out of the race
? SAFETY CAR ?#F3 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/27eFN36h5E
— Formula 3 (@Formula3) June 29, 2024
Kacper Sztuka brought the race’s first safety car out after stopping his car on the exit of Turn 1. Sztuka suffered from a damaged suspension after contact with Wurtz. Dino Beganovic was spun around after getting hit on his rear, the Swede was able to keep the car running, however, dropped down to last position.
The safety car ended on Lap 4 with Mansell shooting ahead, determined to hold on first position. With DRS enabled the following lap, Nikola Tsolov was hungry for the victory, running alongside the Australian with Tsolov overtaking and gaining the lead of the race.
The race started to settle down with Tsolov holding onto his lead. Down the peckign order, Browning was flying around the track. The Briton was running behind Noel Leon, looking to grab as much points as possible in his pursuit for the championship.
Fornaroli, the championship leader was running down in 14th, however, was making progress and working his way up the pecking order, inching closer to some crucial points.
The closing stages
LAP 15 / 21
The @ARTGP duo are going at it! ⚔️
Mansell dives up the inside of Tsolov going into turn 3, but Tsolov gets back past around the outside of turn 4#F3 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/3CZ7s0jZB2
— Formula 3 (@Formula3) June 29, 2024
Mansell caught up to his teammate and was going side by side with Tsolov, however, Tsolov was refusing to give his position up. The following lap the Australian grabbed the position back and shot back up to the lead of the race. Lindblad suffers from a puncture and runs wide, he suffered from damage on his front wing, the PREMA driver was able to limp back to the pits without bringing out a safety car.
Sebastian Montoya spun around and hit the wall, bringing out the sessions second safety car, a heavy hit for the Spaniard, however, he was able to walk away from the scene with no injury, a disappointing end for a strong race.
The car was cleared away and the drivers had a one lap shoot out to fight for the victory. Tsolov shot ahead of Stenshorne running in second, after a strong race the Bulgarian crossed the line first with Stenshorne and Mansell rounding out the top three.
The top 12
1 – Tsolov
2 – Stenshorne
3 – Mansell
4 – Dunne
5 – Van Hoepen
6 – Mini
7 – Goethe
8 – Tramnitz
9 – Leon
10 – Megeutounif
11 – Browning
12 – Fornaroli
Featured image credits: F3 via X