Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad completed a rare double race win at Silverstone as he inherited the feature race victory from Callum Voisin.
In a dramatic race run in mixed conditions which saw several incidents, Lindblad’s gamble to start on slicks paid off as he finished second behind Voisin on the road. He was promoted to first place when the stewards handed Voisin a 10-seconed time penalty for overtaking Max Esterson outside track limits.Alpine junior driver Gabriele Mini picked up second place and the championship lead, while Voisin held onto the final podium place in third despite his penalty.
Although there had been no rain in the hours leading up to the start of the race, the track was still damp from overnight showers as the grid lined up. Only Callum Voisin and Piotr Wisnicki opted to start on slick tyres, while the remaining 28 drivers left the grid on the formation lap on wets.
The lack of water on track caused a pack of cars to dive into the pits before the start to change to slick tyres, including championship contenders Gabriele Mini and Arvid Lindblad. That meant that when the lights went out, pole winner Luke Browning led away from Max Esterson with Leonardo Fornaroli in third, before Fornaroli passed Esterson for second. However Voisin on slick tyres had so much more grip than the cars ahead of him and started scything through the field.
The Safety Car was deployed before the end of the first lap after Cian Shields spun out at Farm corner, but when the race resumed at the start of lap three, Voisin flew past the three cars ahead of him over the course of half a lap to gain the lead from Browning by the time they had reached Luffield.
McLaren junior Alex Dunne ran wide at the Wellington Straight and was launched into the air as he rejoined the circuit. That caused Sophia Floersch to take avoiding action which moved her into Dino Beganovic alongside, sending her into the wall and out of the race.
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The Safety Car was deployed again, but the expected rain finally arrived, causing problems for Voisin in the lead. When the race restarted at the start of lap eight, Voisin was immediately swallowed up on the now-wet track, moving Browning back into the lead, Fornaroli back into second and Esterson into third. There was more bad news for Voisin, however, as he was hit with a 10-second penalty for passing Esterson outside the track limits.
At the end of the green flag lap, a clash out of Stowe between Kacper Sztuka and Joshua Dufek sent the latter sliding, causing Sebastian Montoya and Dunne behind to run off the track in avoidance and sending both into the tyre wall in a spectacular accident. The Safety Car was deployed for a third time while the cars were removed from the pit entry, their drivers unharmed.
Browning held the lead at the next restart, but with rain having stopped again, the track started to return to those on slicks, including Voisin, Lindblad and Mini. All three gained more confidence as they generated heat in their tyres and over the course of the 16th lap, all three moved ahead of the cars struggling on the wets to assume the top three positions with Voisin ahead of Lindblad and Mini in third.
Although Voisin was still in front, his penalty meant Lindblad was the effective leader and Mini second. All three leaders on dry tyres ran line astern, but Mini put pressure on the Red Bull junior ahead, Lindblad running wide at Copse as a result.
The disruptions meant the race hit the maximum time limit and was cut short to 20 laps. Voisin led the final tour and took the chequered flag, but Lindblad crossed under a second behind to inherit the victory and complete the double victory in his home round.
Mini crossed the line third and picked up second place as a result, while the gap between the three leaders and the field behind meant that Voisin took the last place on the podium.
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Slick runners Tommy Smith, Wisnicki and Oliver Goethe finished behind the top three with Fornaroli in seventh and Browning fading to eighth by the finish. Nikita Bedrin took ninth with Leon claiming the final point in tenth.
The race tightened up the championship battle significantly, with Mini taking back the top spot in the standings with 118 points, five ahead of Lindblad as Browning drops to third on 112.
Formula 3 Great Britain race two results
| Position | Car | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Arvid Lindblad | Prema |
| 2 | 2 | Gabriele Minì | Prema |
| 3 | 29 | Callum Voisin | Rodin |
| 5 | 22 | Tom Smith | Van Amersfoort |
| 5 | 30 | Piotr Wisnicki | Rodin |
| 6 | 10 | Oliver Goethe | Campos |
| 7 | 4 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Trident |
| 8 | 14 | Luke Browning | Hitech |
| 9 | 27 | Nikita Bedrin | PHM |
| 10 | 20 | Noel Leon | Van Amersfoort |
| 11 | 24 | Laurens Van Hoepen | ART |
| 12 | 5 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident |
| 13 | 23 | Christian Mansell | ART |
| 14 | 7 | Tim Tramnitz | MP |
| 15 | 25 | Nikola Tsolov | ART |
| 16 | 6 | Santiago Ramos | Trident |
| 17 | 8 | Kacper Sztuka | MP |
| 18 | 18 | Max Esterson | Jenzer |
| 19 | 1 | Dino Beganovic | Prema |
| 20 | 15 | James Wharton | Hitech |
| 21 | 26 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | PHM |
| 22 | 19 | Matias Zagazeta | Jenzer |
| 23 | 12 | Mari Boya | Campos |
| 24 | 31 | Joseph Loake | Rodin |
| DNF | 17 | Charlie Wurz | Jenzer |
| DNF | 28 | Josh Dufek | PHM |
| DNF | 11 | Sebastian Montoya | Campos |
| DNF | 9 | Alex Dunne | MP |
| DNF | 21 | Sophia Floersch | Van Amersfoort |
| DNF | 16 | Cian Shields | Hitech |
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Formula 3
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- Win-less Fornaroli clinches F3 title with last-lap pass in epic Monza finale
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- Five points covers F3 top three for finale as Tramnitz wins sprint race
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
7th July 2024, 10:27
That was a very harsh penalty for Voisin, especially given the conditions.
RBAlonso (@rbalonso)
7th July 2024, 10:29
Unforgivably naive of Voison and team not to give that position up when he overtook off the road. He was 5s a lap faster and it would have been able to overtake in the next corner. Particularly in a race destined for SCs.
I think F3 needs to cull the field a little. 30 cars is causing too many incidents. I watched the imola race (I think) and it had about 3 racing laps. Today was a similar story. It’s great to watch close racing but if the race only runs for 50% of the distance they need to look at other solutions.