Formula 3 also put on a show in Hungary, with Gabriele Minì’s second victory of the season and the fourth victory of Zak O’Sullivan, who led the Feature Race with authority, closing the gap to the leader of the standings, Gabriele Bortoleto, author of a weekend in which he still managed to conquer a podium.
Starting from pole with the grid reversed, the Italian won Saturday’s race just ahead of the points leader and Nikita Bedrin, author of his best result during this championship.
Bortoleto remains in command of the championship with a 43-point lead over O’Sullivan, who thus redeems the negative weekend at Silverstone where he finished with a double zero. Martì goes down one position, now third, while Minì climbs up to seventh position, overtaken by the Ferrari driver Beganovic.
Sprint Race – Triumph Minì
After the victory in the splendid setting of Monaco, where he started from pole, Gabriele Minì concedes an encore with his second success of the season in Formula 3 in the Hungaroring sprint race.
Taking advantage of the inverted grid, also in this case the Italian started from the first box, even if at the start he was immediately overtaken with a nice maneuver on the outside of turn one by the rookie Nikita Bedrin of Janzer at the start.
Bedrin, who started from second place, which had never happened before given that his previous best start was from fourteenth place, in fact took the lead in turn 1, dropping Minì to second place, while Christian Mansell, who conquered his first podium at Silverstone, moved into third position with Campos. Prema’s Paul Aron had also attempted the same move on the following lap, but a long one allowed Mansell to maintain fourth place.
Minì then regained the lead during the eighth lap thanks to the activation of the DRS, alongside and overtaking Bedrin, while behind Bortoleto he returned to the podium area by overtaking Mansell. A few laps later the yellow flag was displayed following Sebastian Montoya’s stop before the penultimate corner due to a technical problem, which then led to Safety’s entry a few seconds later.
Gabriele Mini, Hitech Grand Prix
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd
The race resumed with three laps to go, with Aron taking fourth position in turn 3 after another duel with Mansell. Tsolov made contact with Campos driver Pepe Marti on the restart, with the former hitting Marti’s rear and forcing him into a spin in their fight for eighth.
Up front, Mini built up a 2.1 second advantage over Bedrin, who tried to resist Bortoleto’s attacks as much as possible, overtaking, however, which came just a few corners from the checkered flag. Behind the Italian, winner of his second race of the season, Bortoleto and Bedrin joined the podium, with a prominent result for the rookie.
Aron finished in fourth place, with Trident driver Oliver Goethe in fifth and Mansell in sixth. Franco Colapinto finished seventh for MP Motorsport, with teammate Jonny Edgar eighth, while ART driver Gregoire Saucy and Dino Beganovic (Prema) completed the top 10.
Podium: Race Winner Gabriele Mini, Hitech Grand Prix. second place Gabriel Bortoleto, Trident, third place Nikita Bedrin, Jenzer Motorsport.
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Feature Race – Vince O’Sullivan
The first thing to mention about the Feature Race is that the race was shortened by five laps – from 24 to 19 – on Saturday night for “safety reasons”, after a report from Pirelli recommended that the distance be reduced due to the level of tire wear seen in Saturday’s sprint race.
In terms of racing, Zak O’Sullivan put in a truly beautiful performance to score his fourth win of the season, which has lifted him up to second place in the championship standings. The Williams Academy driver crossed the line 2.3 seconds ahead of rookie teammate Dino Beganovic, while Franco Colapinto finished third for MP Motorsport.
After lining up on the first box thanks to the pole position conquered on Friday, O’Sullivan kept the lead trying immediately to build a safety margin for Dino Beganovic. At the halfway point the gap was 4.2 seconds and, although the Ferrari Academy bearer managed to close it by two seconds, it was the Briton who took the win.
The top 10 remained unchanged at the start in a relatively quiet start for F3, with only Pepe Marti able to gain two positions on the second lap, moving up to eleventh place.
Zak O’Sullivan, Prema Racing
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Marti continued his comeback in the following laps, gaining several positions, while Colapinto in the meantime was able to steal third place from Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident) thanks to an overtaking move in turn one during the non-lap. Behind him, Goethe then took fourth into turn 2 the following lap, before Paul Aron (Prema) also passed Fornaroli two laps later.
Marti was then also able to pass Fornaroli in sixth position, followed closely by Bortoleto and Edgar. In front, Beganovic reduced the gap to his teammate by two seconds, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead and he settled for second place ahead of Colapinto, who was four seconds behind. Goethe finished in fourth place, Aron in fifth and Marti in sixth, thus completing a good comeback. Bortoleto finished seventh, while Edgar, Fornaroli and Mari Boya completed the top 10.
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