F3 | Bahrain: the season opens in the name of Lindblad and Browning

Not only Formula 1 and Formula 2, but the weekend in Bahrain also saw the debut of the new Formula 3 season which opened under the banner of two different drivers, namely Arvid Lindblad, who secured his first victory in the category at debut in the sprint race, and Luke Browning, capable of achieving success in the Feature Race on Saturday.

The weekend for Dino Beganovic, one of the contenders for the championship, was much more complicated, as he was unable to realize his potential due to a puncture and a technical problem in the two races which forced him to recover from the back, but he ended without points .

Double madness in points with a sixth and a seventh place, however, for Gabriele Minì on his return with Prema.

Sprint Race: debut victory for Lindblad

If in Formula 2 the first weekend of the season held little satisfaction for Prema, the opening race of the Formula 3 championship saw one of the Italian cars achieve victory, thanks to the success of the debutant Arvid Lindblad, also taking advantage of the duels between the drivers of the other teams.

Laurens van Hoepen, author of the pole position, started well, but already in turn 2 he found himself fighting with his teammate Nikola Tsolov and with the ART. Much more complicated, however, was the start for Dino Beganovic, who started from behind due to the inverted grid, forced to return to the pits due to a puncture during the first lap due to a contact with Santiago Ramos.

The fight for the top continued in front of the two ART drivers, exchanging positions several times, an aspect that allowed Max Esterson to widen the battle to make it a three-way challenge. However, as the laps went by Esterson could not keep up with the pace and was overtaken by Lindblad, with the Prema driver thus able to climb back into a position that would potentially have earned him the podium.

While Lindblad closed in on the leaders, the leading ART pair resumed their battle, with van Hoepen and Tsolov once again fighting for the lead, thus giving the Prema standard bearer the opportunity to get closer and enter the victory conversation. However, van Hoepen himself was the author of a mistake on the thirteenth lap, ending up wide over the curb, enough to end up behind Lindblad.

Arvid Lindblad, Prema Racing

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

At the beginning of the fifteenth lap, the Prema driver, also supported by Red Bull, began the attack tests, with an exchange of positions with Tsolov which was resolved only in the following lap, when Lidblad managed to maintain the lead of the race despite the ART rival having attempted to overtake with the DRS. Lindblad quickly increased his lead to two seconds, with attention then turning to the battle for the final step of the podium, with Fornaroli taking center stage thanks to an overtaking move into Turn 4 on a struggling Tsolov.

Lindblad took the checkered flag with a margin of more than five seconds from van Hoepen, who managed to keep Fornaroli behind in third place. Fifth place for a good Tim Tramnitz, followed by Esterson and Gabriele Minì, involved in several battles at the end.

One of the possible protagonists of the championship was further behind, Browning, who slipped from ninth place to fifteenth position due to a 10-second penalty imposed in the first laps for having completed an overtaking move beyond the white line at turn four.

Feature Race: Browning deftly imposes himself

If Friday's race opened in the name of Prema, Saturday's race went in the direction of Williams Academy pupil Browning, who led from start to finish, winning all 25 points after responding to pressure from Christian Mansell.

On the other hand, however, Beganovic's unlucky start to the season continued: his car managed by Prema was unable to start from pole position and caused him to fall to the back of the grid.

While the Swedish driver immediately lost ground, Browning was therefore able to start the race with an undisputed advantage. Taking advantage of this situation, the Hitech pilot quickly moved away from the range of the DRS, while the pursuing group began to fight among themselves.

In the end Beganovic recovered up to thirteenth position, but left Bahrain without points: although the championship is only in its first race, it is a bitter start to the season, without satisfaction for a title contender.

Another driver who had a difficult start was Mari Boya, who suffered a puncture in an accident involving ART teammate Laurens van Hoepen. The first to benefit from these problems were Sami Meguetounif (Trident) and Christian Mansell (ART) and, thus, the drivers who had started fourth and fifth respectively rose to second and third place.

Gabriele Mini, Prema Racing, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, PHM AIX Racing and Leonardo Fornaroli, Trident

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The positions changed in Mansell's favor on lap five, when both drivers came to a block, leaving the way for the Australian, who took advantage of the situation. As the drivers began to wind down the battles, Browning saw his lead shrink and by lap ten he was leading an 11-car DRS train, with a margin over Mansell of just half a second.

On the seventeenth lap the gaps began to widen, with the first four moving within two seconds of the chasing group, although at that moment Browning suspected he had an engine problem which, fortunately, turned out to be a minor without major consequences. In fact, with five laps to go, Browning started to push again, albeit without completely getting rid of Mansell.

Behind them, Tramnitz managed to gain third place and then took it to the finish line, overtaking the Trident Meguetounif driver. Fifth was Santiago Ramos ahead of Gabriele Minì, sixth. Fornaroli, Lindblad, Dunne and Goethe also scored points.