As in Formula 1 and Formula 2, even in Formula 3 there was no shortage of exciting and uncertain endings until the end, with the ranking changing several times. There was no shortage of confusion in the sprint race, both due to the many Safety Cars that undermined the progress of the race, and due to the various penalties that changed the ranking several times.
The winner in Saturday’s race was Oliver Goethe, who thus achieved his first success in F3 this season, which adds to the one obtained last year at Silverstone. Disappointment for Noel Leon, who at first seemed to have the victory in hand, but who not only let himself be surprised by the German in the final moments of the race, but who also suffered a penalty after the race, slipping to third place overall.
Unlike the sprint, the feature race proved to be much more linear, with the victory of Sami Meguetounif ahead of Goethe and Fornaroli, who thus takes the lead of the standings ahead of Luke Browning, fourth in the Sunday race. Beganovic was fifth ahead of his teammate Gabriele Minì, who made a good comeback after a problem at the start which had caused him to slip out of the points.
Noel Leon, Van Amersfoort Racing
Photo credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Sprint race: change the ranking after the race
Noel Leon believed he had achieved his first F3 victory in dramatic circumstances at Imola, in a sprint race which saw four Safety Car interventions, effectively limiting the time on track in which the various drivers were able to battle.
Leon had managed the various interruptions in the lead and, initially, it seemed he had won, despite having crossed the finish line in second place after being caught on the final restart on the last lap after a Virtual Safety Car period. However, immediately after the race, he was promoted back to first place when runner-up, Oliver Goethe, received a five-second penalty for a Safety Car infringement on one of several restarts.
Leon benefited from penalties from Goethe and Tramnitz, but his joy was short-lived due to another post-race investigation, which dropped him to third place. The accident concerned the penultimate restart under the Safety Car regime, during which Leon was accused of not having followed the race director’s instructions regarding the movement to be made during a restart.
The event notes explained that: “To reduce the risk of an accident on the restart, it is not permitted to move from the entrance to turn 17 until the driver crosses the line”. More generally, in fact, the regulations state that : “To avoid the likelihood of accidents before the safety car returns to the pits, from the moment the lights on the safety car go out the drivers must proceed at a pace that does not involve irregular acceleration or braking or maneuvers that could put danger to other drivers or obstruct the restart”.
Podium: Oliver Goethe, Campos Racing, Noel Leon, Van Amersfoort Racing, Tim Tramnitz, MP Motorsport
Photo credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Analysis of the accident shows that all drivers continued to move after the Safety Car lights went out, but apart from Leon, the rest of the field stopped moving after Turn 16, while the VAR driver continued, thus suffering a penalty.
In a typically frenetic start, pole-sitter Kaper Sztuka slipped out of the podium to finish fifth, while Leon, Tramnitz and Goethe, with the latter starting from sixth, made up ground. However, a first intervention by the Safety Car was necessary just after a few seconds, when Mari Boya’s car ended up spinning at Villeneuve on the first lap. After a brief investigation, the stewards gave Tommy Smith a 10-second time penalty for causing the accident.
When the race resumed, championship contender Leonardo Fornaroli was involved in a heated battle with AIX driver Nikita Bedrin for thirteenth position, with a duel which however ended in the gravel, prompting another Safety intervention Char. As soon as the race resumed, it was stopped again due to contact between Charlie Wurz and Callum Voisin at Tosa, which earned the Austrian a 10-second penalty.
Noel Leon, Van Amersfoort Racing
Photo credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Another safety car intervention followed immediately afterwards, when Sami Meguetounif hit the rear of one of the Prema cars during the race at Tamburello, finding himself stuck in the gravel.
On the final lap, the virtual safety car intervened to cover the accident that knocked out championship leader Browning, but the stewards removed the car in time to leave room for the drivers to navigate the final corners. In fact, when the green flag was given exiting the Variante Alta, Goethe took Leon by surprise and took the lead with just two corners to go. Initially it was thought that the penalty given to Goethe had changed the ranking, but other post-race interventions gave the German the success.
Feature Race: first victory for Meguetounif
Compared to the sprint race, which saw four Safety Car interventions and a Virtual Safety Car period, the Feature Race was much calmer without any major interruptions, with only a brief yellow flag displayed when Tommy Smith ended up in the gravel in the early stages of the race.
The Frenchman had started the F3 race in third position, behind his Trident teammates Leonardo Fornaroli and Santiago Ramos, who scored the pole position. Goethe, however, was the author of an excellent start, immediately gaining three positions compared to seventh place on the grid, while Gabriele Mini was the author of an unfortunate start, slipping out of the top ten.
Sami Megeutounif, Trident
Photo credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Ramos, who took the pole position, had an excellent initial phase of the race, but halfway through the race his pace dropped and he eventually crossed the finish line in eighth place, achieving his third points finish of the season.
Meguetounif’s rise was favored by an error by Fornaroli, which dropped the Italian to fifth place, which clearly simplified the Frenchman’s task. However, the decisive move came later, during the eighteenth lap, when he overtook Goethe at the Tamburello finding the maneuver that guaranteed him his first victory in F3.
The result of the Feature Race indicates one important thing, namely the tendency not to have repeat winners this season with Luke Browning, Arvid Lindblad, Martinius Stenshorne, Dino Beganovic and Goethe sharing the other five events held before the Feature Race Sunday in Imola.
Leonardo Fornaroli, Trident
Photo credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Goethe and Fornaroli finished behind the Frenchman, who thus achieved the podium in his home Grand Prix, a great satisfaction for the young Italian, especially considering that he took the lead in the standings with a three-point advantage over Browning. In his case, the consistency of results, if not for a zero in the Imola sprint race, is making the difference, even if he has not yet won a race.
It is precisely thanks to third place in the Feature Race, which allowed him to precede Browning, that Fornaroli managed to take the lead of the championship. Fifth place for Dino Beganovic with Prima Prema, third in the general classification on equal points with Gabriele Minì. The Italian was the author of an excellent comeback after the problem at the start and, although he has not yet won a race, for now he has been one of only two teams, together with Goethe, to score points in every single race held this season. ‘year.
Seventh place for Lindblad, ahead of Ramos, Boya and Montoya.
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