By 'The F3 Insider'.
In a new segment, 'The F3 Insider' tells us all about the first two rounds of the FIA Formula 3 season, and the feeling from inside the paddock. So far; Trident's Gabriel Bortoleto leads the championship but that's a very small part of the tale of the first two rounds.
The F3 Insider tells us more!
Bahrain:
Besides seeing (Gregoire)Saucy dominate in testing, the rookies were the ones coming on top for qualifying with (Gabriele)Mini setting the fastest lap and Bortoleto in 2nd with many other rookies in the top 10. Will this year be the year of the rookies?
📸 Gregoire Saucy sits second in the F3 standings after two rounds.
Sprint/Reverse grid race: We had good fights and a very tight top 5, with Pepe(Marti) the driver that got the most out of it and coming in 1st in lap 14, and finishing the race on the top followed by a strong (Franco)Colapinto and (Caio)Collet.
📸 Pepe Marti celebrates his maiden F3 win in Bahrain.
Feature race: Bortoleto and Mini fought for the top position with Saucy in 3 for the first couple of laps. Mini reclaimed the 1st position after lap 10 to not make it easy for Bortoleto and fight for what could've been his maiden win.
A consistent (Dino)Beganovic was coming to fight in the front overtaking the ARTs late in race.
📸 2022 FRECA Champion Dino Beganovic celebrates his feature race podium, and has shown good pace over the first two rounds.
One lap to go a broken suspension for Alex García made the SC car come on track, very unfortunate for Mini who had a 5 second penalty made Dino claim P3 in the Feature race.
Who is your favourite driver? Is this the year of the rookies?
📣 18 of the 30 drivers in F3 this year are rookies, with plenty standing out so far.
We left Bahrain with:
Bortoleto - Goethe - Beganovic in the standings.
📸 Bortoleto(right) and Ollie Goethe(left) with team boss Giacomo Ricci.
Melbourne
And we came to Melbourne, new venue for F2 and F3. New challenges for engineers and drivers in order to find the perfect setup and the limits on the street circuit. In a disrupted qualifying session it was Bortoleto who confirmed his strong start of the season taking pole position. Unfortunate for other drivers whom trying to find the limit of the track damaged the car in the barriers.
📸 Gabriele Mini ahead of Dino Beganovic.
Sprint race: Colapinto and MP Motorsport got denied the win of the Sprint after the podium due a technical infringement of a car piece, allowing Zak(O'Sullivan) to take the win, and also strong (Sebastian)Montoya moving up to P2 and (Paul)Aron to P3.
📸 Zak O'Sullivan was awarded the sprint race win in Melbourne after a disqualification for Franco Colapinto was given post race.
Feature race:
Strong Bortoleto claims his 2nd Feature race win and adds a good sum of points for his and Trident challenge for the title. Montoya, Mini and (Luke) Browning are showing that Hitech is there to fight. Martí demonstrates amazing pace recovering to P7 from last after a qualifying crash, making 23 places in 23 laps.
📸 2 feature races, 2 wins for Trident and Gabriel Bortoleto.
We left Melbourne with:
Bortoleto - Saucy - Beganovic in the standings.
F3 returns at Imola on the 19th to the 21st of May, before heading for Monaco a week later.
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, ART Grand Prix, PREMA Racing, Gabriele Mini, Josep Maria Marti.
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