For the 2022 Formula 3 title you will have to deal with Victor Martins and Roman Stanek. This is what emerged at the end of the Barcelona round where the French of the ART Grand Prix managed to obtain a clear success in Race 2 redeeming the bitterness for the withdrawal accused in Race 1.
Stanek, on the other hand, got the most out of the package available, taking care to collect very heavy fundamental points. Eighth in Race 1 and second in Race 2, the Trident driver seems to have understood that consistency, as well as speed, will be the key to emerging in a championship where the real protagonists are starting to emerge.
F3, Barcelona: crossfire between Vidales and Crawford in Race 1
The first race of the weekend in Barcelona ended amid controversy. David Vidales got on the top step of the podium, with his first success in Formula 3, ahead of Jak Crawford but between the American of the Prema and the Spanish driver of the Campos team, the nerves were very tense immediately after the checkered flag.
Vidales, who started from the first position thanks to the inverted grid, has always maintained the command of the operations but from the middle of the race onwards he began to experience a drop in the pace that allowed Crawford, immediately after overtaking Correa, to become more and more threatening.
The episode that characterized Race 1 took place on lap 12. The Prema driver, thanks to the DRS, got in the wake of Vidales, but the Spaniard defended the inside by breaking away very late. The same braking at the limit was also performed by Crawford who then tried to overtake the Spaniard on the outside of the first corner.
The American’s maneuver, however, immediately appeared too reckless. Vidales, in fact, never allowed the driver of the Red Bull nursery to put the nose of his car in front and Crawford, now out of line, could not help but cross the asphalt escape route, take off above the bollards. , and lose contact from the Spanish Campos.
Immediately after the episode, the Prema driver began to complain over the radio that he had been pushed off the track and the technicians of the Italian team tried to reassure him by telling him how the maneuver had been put under observation by the race direction.
Here, however, Crawford showed a hint of immaturity. The American, in fact, continued to complain about the maneuver via radio for other laps, also asking for a restitution of his position, but in doing so he lost sight of the most important objective: to reduce the gap from Vidales again.
David Vidales, Campos Racing, Jak Crawford, Prema Powerteam, and Caio Collet, MP Motorsport
Photo by: Joe Portlock – Formula 1
After the accident in turn 1, the gap between the two never dropped below the second and a half and Vidales was thus able to pass safely in first position under the checkered flag, giving himself the first victory in a single-seater on a different track. from Imola (circuit where he obtained 2 successes in Formula Renault Eurocup and 1 in Formula Regional ed.).
“It was a tough duel, and that’s what we want,” Vidales said at a press conference. “In the first corner he went outside and in braking he was not yet side by side, while I tried to make my trajectory and brake as late as possible without touching him or pushing him off the track. It worked and in the end my pace was enough to keep him behind me ”.
Crawford was on the podium with a dark face, certain that he was deprived of his first victory in the category, but the American has a lot to complain about. A little more patience and he would have managed to have an easy life on a Vidales who did not seem irresistible at all.
“I had the DRS open and I really wanted to win,” Crawford replied. “I think we both braked a bit early, so I released the brake a bit and tried to stay on the outside but I didn’t have any more space and if I forced it we would have touched each other. Maybe I could have been a little more patient ”.
Third step of the podium for Caio Collet who once again proves to be able to take care of the point, while behind the Brazilian of MP Motorsport he closed an Arthur Leclerc particularly on the ball and kissed by luck in terms of the championship.
In fact, in the opening laps of Race 1, Victor Martins suddenly slowed down and sadly returned to the pits due to a technical problem that immediately put him out of action. The failure suffered by the Frenchman could cost him dearly in an extremely balanced championship where even a single point can make the difference.
F3, Barcelona: Martins a hammer in Race 2
Stronger than bad luck, stronger than safety cars, stronger than everything and everyone. Victor Martins literally dominated the second race of the weekend in Barcelona, thus redeeming the disappointment he suffered on Saturday when a technical problem forced him to retire.
The departure from second place did not prevent the Frenchman of the ART Grand Prix from immediately sinking the blow on poleman Stanek with a great overtaking on the outside of turn 1.
Having risen to the lead, Martins imposed an unsustainable pace for the rest of the group without this causing a deterioration of the tires. His escape for the win, however, was interrupted on two occasions when the safety car hit the track, thus nullifying his margin over Stanek.
In both restarts, however, Martins showed he had more, always managing to run away and leave the Trident team driver struggling with the marvelous rookie Isack Hadjar.
The Frenchman is confirming himself as one of the most beautiful realities of this season. Fast, aggressive, constant, Hadjar was a thorn in Stanek’s side and made the rider of the Trident suffer a lot.
Stanek had to bring out the strong point of his repertoire, the tough defense, to avoid losing the second step of the podium and he made the difference especially in the third sector when he managed to take that minimum advantage that prevented Hadjar from taking advantage of the DRS wide open to overtake it.
At the end of the race Hadjar’s dark face made it clear how disappointed the Frenchman was in third position, while Stanek took home an important result in terms of the championship, making the most of the potential available.
If the Trident team driver has understood that being consistent can be the key to success at the end of the season, the same thought does not seem to have crossed Arthur Leclerc’s mind.
The Monegasque of PREMA, author of a bad start that saw him relegate from sixth to ninth place, was too aggressive in the duel with Vidales in the middle of the race, remedying a penalty of 5 ” and then showed equal aggression in the battles with Juan Manuel Correa to Gregoire Saucy.
Result? Fourteenth place finish after the time penalty. A zero in the standings that hurts, especially considering what his direct rivals in the standings did.
Martins, in fact, at the end of the Barcelona round, returned alone to the lead of the ranking with 60 points, followed by 4 points behind Stanek, while Crawford, thanks to the second place in Race 1 and the sixth of Race 2, is now third in the standings with 50 points.
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