F3 / Australia, Sprint Race: Stenshorne's first success | FP

First joy in F3

The second weekend of the championship opened in a memorable way for Martinius Stenshorne, who after a good fight with Laurens von Hoepen for first position took the victory in the Sprint Race in Melbourne. For the Norwegian, driver of the Hitech team and above all one of the many debutants in the category this year, it is thus the first career success in this category.

Race report

A race that therefore opened with a spectacular duel between Stenshorne and Van Hoepen, the latter finding himself on pole after the reversal of the starting grid. Able to defend his lead in the first two laps, the Dutchman then had to give in to his rival's attack, but responded shortly afterwards with a nice counter-overtaking. A battle that continued in an exciting way until the sixth round, with Stenshorne who, from that moment on, never left the top of the rankings. This is also due to the beautiful comeback of Arvin Lindblad, who started from eighth place on the starting grid and first climbed up to the podium area, taking advantage of Christian Mansell's difficulties, and then moved into second position on lap 9, also getting the better of Van Hoepen. The initial performance of Fornaroli and Minì was also positive, entering the points zone after a good start, with the Trident native from Piacenza (who will start from pole position tomorrow) however entering into difficulty on the 7th lap, to the point of relegating to 15th place . Minì's comeback, however, was more regular and did well to take advantage of the numerous duels in the heart of the points zone to leap into sixth position. The race, however, experienced its most important moment seven laps from the end, thanks to Inthrapuvasak going off the track at the first corner caused by a contact with Smith. An accident that pushed the Race Direction to call the Safety Car, resulting in the cancellation of detachments. With the race restarting regularly with 4 laps to go, Stenshorne still maintained his composure to finish ahead of Lindblad and Van Hoepen, while, on the last lap, Beganovic he managed to overtake his teammate Minì, thus finishing in 6th place. Having recovered from the difficulties experienced in the first half of the race, Fornaroli also managed to recover at the end, however not going beyond11th position, and therefore just a whisker away from the points. Bad instead Browningstill at the top of the drivers' standings but forced to withdraw for technical problems.

F3 / Australia 2024, Sprint Race: order of arrival

Late evening with the Feature

To watch the Formula 3 Feature Race, unlike F2 and F1, you won't have to wait until the early hours of Sunday morning. In fact, the green light will come on when it is still summer in Italy 11.05pm with the race always live on Sky Sports F1.