Joshusa Duerksen started 2025 from where he left off with a sprint F2 race win in Australia, as Santiago Ramos took glory in F3.
F2:
Duerksen made a brilliant start from second on the grid, getting ahead of pole-sitter Fornaroli as soon as the lights went out, while Browning kept a hold of P3. Browning’s Hitech TGR teammate Dino Beganovic however, had dropped from P4 to P6 on the run down to Turn 1, with Richard Verschoor and Roman Stanek overtaking the Swede.
The Virtual Safety Car was then deployed at the start of Lap 3, Victor Martins having stopped at Turn 6. The ART Grand Prix driver hit the barrier at the exit of Turn 5, and with a damaged suspension, his race came to end. With Martins’ car removed, racing resumed on Lap 4. But Fornaroli was slow to react and came under pressure from Browning, although he was able to hold on P2.
There was another Invicta/Hitech battle ongoing, as Beganovic went around the outside of Stanek at Turn 11 to go up to fifth. At the same corner, moments later, Gabriele Minì dived down the inside of Campos Racing’s Josep María Martí for eighth. The Safety Car was deployed moments later on Lap 7, TRIDENT’s Max Esterson having spun into the gravel at Turn 6.
Racing resumed at the start of Lap 11, and Duerksen showed good pace and was over a second clear of Fornaroli in second by the end of the lap. Onto Lap 12 of 23, and while battling for fifth with Stanek, Beganovic spun at the exit of Turn 9. He was able to continue on his way, but dropped down to P17. Out in front, Duerksen continued to extend the lead and by the end start of Lap 14, he was 2.1s clear of Fornaroli, who was still coming under attack from Browning as well as Verschoor.
TRIDENT’s day was made worse however as Sami Meguetounif spun off into the gravel at Turn 10, bringing out the second Safety Car. We were back to green flag conditions at the start of Lap 17 of 23, and once again Duerksen did a good job on the restart. The AIX driver was over a second ahead of Fornaroli by the end of the lap.
The Paraguayan continued to extend his lead out front, while Fornaroli continued to hold off a DRS train that went down to Alexander Dunne in P10. As the drivers headed onto the penultimate lap, the entire top 10 was covered by six seconds, as Dunne made his way past Arvid Lindblad to go to ninth.
But out in front, Duerksen cruised to the chequered flag, winning the first Sprint Race of the year ahead of Fornaroli, as Browning took the final spot on the podium. Verschoor finished fourth ahead of Stanek, followed by the PREMA Racing pairing of Sebastián Montoya and Minì, with Martí taking the final point in P8.
F3:
Ramos held firm into Turn 1, but Bilinski had to fight back past Stenshorne with a late dive into Turn 4 having lost out in the first corner to the Hitech TGR driver. It also opened the door for Campos Racing’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak to follow through, but their fight was far from over. The Rodin then swept by Matías Zagazeta for second into Turn 9, but waiting in the wings, Inthraphuvasak, went into third around the outside into the chicane.
Stenshorne fired back before the end of the lap, re-passing the pair into Turn 11 to move back into second, while Inthraphuvasak lost out to Zagazeta for fourth before the end of the lap. A Virtual Safety Car was called upon as the second tour began, Charlie Wurz’s TRIDENT in need of recovering after stopping at Turn 5.
Back to green flag racing on Lap 3, Tramnitz was tucked in the slipstream of Inthraphuvasak and he took fifth with an around-the-outside pass at Turn 9. The Safety Car was called upon in short order though, Rafael Câmara and Laurens van Hoepen both in the gravel at Turn 12 following contact with James Wharton, who also retired at the end of the lap with suspension damage.
Tramnitz had been up to fifth after passing Inthraphuvasak before the Safety Car. But an apparent issue under the Safety Car forced him to slow and drop to the back, before he eventually retired from the Sprint. Racing got back underway entering Lap 9, with Ramos holding on to his lead from Stenshorne, Bilinski, Zagazeta and Inthraphuvasak in the top five, as they broke away from the rest of the pack.
Crucially for the lead battle, a wide moment for Ramos at Turn 13 allowed the Hitech driver to get back into DRS range of his VAR rival ahead at the halfway point. On Lap 13, Stenshorne got a good run into Turn 11 and forced the Mexican driver to defend the corner, but he couldn’t find a route through. At the back of the leading queue, Inthraphuvasak made a pass stick on Zagazeta into Turn 1 to claim fourth position on Lap 15.
But their battling allowed the top three to escape three seconds up the road. Another Safety Car was called upon with five laps to go after contact between Bruno Del Pino and Javier Sagrera into Turn 6, leaving both in the gravel. The clean up operation meant that there was not enough time to get back to green flag racing, allowing Ramos to lead the field over the line for his first F3 win.
Stenshorne followed in second with Bilinski on the podium on his F3 debut. Inthraphuvasak and Zagazeta completed the top five ahead of Nikita Bedrin for AIX Racing, VAR’s Théophile Nael, Campos Racing driver Nikola Tsolov, Rodin’s Callum Voisin and Noel León, who earned P10 for PREMA Racing.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1900718132747972663
[The story is as per press release]
