Alex Dunne worked strategy and passed cars to win feature FIA F2 race in Imola, as Santiago Ramos passes to win in F3.
F2:
Prior to lights out, Sebastián Montoya stalled on the grid at the beginning of the Formation Lap. It meant P2 was vacated as the PREMA Racing driver was forced to start from the pitlane. Beganovic aced his launch at the race start, but it was Leonardo Fornaroli on the move, climbing to P2 as Victor Martins was the second staller of the day, the ART Grand Prix driver left stranded on the grid.
Arvid Lindblad capitalised also, taking third ahead of Dunne having started behind the Rodin driver. With DRS enabled, the top three closed back up and by Lap 6, Beganovic, Fornaroli and Lindblad were covered by less than a second. The top four were in at the first opportunity to fit the Soft tyres entering Lap 7.
Fornaroli lost out in the pitstops, dropping to the back of the quartet, while Dunne gained two places, coming back out behind Beganovic. Jak Crawford and Luke Browning responded on the following tour, pitting to fit the red-walled tyres and the Briton got the jump on the DAMS Lucas Oil driver to come out ahead. The Hitech TGR driver rejoined with the effective race lead and right in front of teammate Beganovic, who had Dunne on his rear wing.
The Swede attempted to go around the outside of Browning at Tosa, but ran out of room on corner exit, allowing Dunne to split the Hitechs and move up a position. With DRS on Lap 9, Dunne made the move into Turn 2, clearing Browning into the first chicane to take the effective race lead. The early pitstops handed P1 over to Josep María Martí, who was fighting with AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen as the leading pair on the alternative strategy.
Lap 14 and Duerksen swept around the outside of the Spaniard to take the lead just before a Safety Car was deployed. Rafael Villagómez was left stranded at Turn 4 having sustained damage in a battle with Sami Meguetounif. Gabriele Minì and John Bennett took the chance to make their mandatory stops and switch to the Supersoft Pirelli tyres.
The PREMA driver came out ahead of Lindblad in P11, with Bennett joining the queue just behind Crawford in P15. The Safety Car was withdrawn entering Lap 19 and Duerksen held onto the lead. Behind them, Dunne was on the move immediately to pass the first of the leading pack yet to pit in Max Esterson.
Browning made the pass into Piratella, but Dunne was through on teammate Amaury Cordeel into Variante Alta to put another car between himself and his closest rival for the win. Onto Lap 24 and after several attempts, Browning got a move to stick on Cordeel at Turn 2 but once again, Dunne immediately put another car between them, passing Miyata into Tosa with a dive down the inside.
Lap 25 and Dunne was up another position, clearing Roman Stanek into the first chicane to move up to third on the road. The Rodin driver then cleared Martí on Lap 26 with the same move at Tosa to take second and he quickly closed on race leader Duerksen. Across the line onto Lap 27, he used DRS to move into P1, with Browning still running fifth behind those yet to pit on the alternative strategy.
Browning moved up to fourth with a pass on Stanek at Turn 2 on Lap 29, with teammate Beganovic passing Cordeel in the same place just behind. Lindblad was able to pounce on an error at Tosa by the Rodin driver to take seventh on the road later in the lap. Duerksen pitted on Lap 30, and Browning passed Martí at the first chicane to move up to second, but Dunne had escaped up the road to the tune of five seconds.
The Irish driver had things under control and by the chequered flag, crossed the line to win his second Feature Race of the season by over six seconds to Browning and Beganovic. Lindblad finished fourth ahead of Fornaroli in the top five. Crawford followed in sixth ahead of the MP Motorsport of Oliver Goethe, Montoya and Richard Verschoor in the top 10.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1924027460179394651
F3:
It was a great start from Ramos, who got ahead of Câmara on the run down to Turn 2, while Stromsted dropped to fifth after starting in P3, with Tuukka Taponen and Louis Sharp getting ahead. Câmara was told over the radio to stay with Ramos and on Lap 4, the Brazilian retook the lead from the Van Amersfoort Racing driver.
TRIDENT was keen to make up for the start as Stromsted recovered one of the places he lost thanks to a nice move round the outside of Sharp on Lap 6 at Turn 2. Onto Lap 8 and Ramos had managed to stay within DRS range of Câmara. The pair were over two seconds clear of Taponen, who was coming under pressure from Stromsted.
The Dane got back to where he started after overtaking the ART Grand Prix driver into Turn 2. Just behind, Roman Bilinski overtook his Rodin Motorsport teammate Louis Sharp for fifth at the same corner. Further behind, MP Motorsport were making moves as Tim Tramnitz overtook Noel León for ninth at Piratella, while Alessandro Giusti dived to the inside of Nikola Tsolov at the penultimate corner.
A Virtual Safety Car was signalled on Lap 12 of 22 with Ivan Domingues having stopped on track at Turn 4. Racing resumed on Lap 13 and Ramos was right on the back of Câmara, while Mari Boya overtook Ugo Ugochukwu for P7. Boya was flying and moved past the Rodins on Lap 14 and 15, first Sharp and then Bilinski, both at Turn 2, putting him up to P5.
Sharp was beginning to fall through the field and lost out to Tramnitz and Giusti, and by Lap 18 of 22 was in ninth. Ramos was closer than ever to Câmara now at the start of Lap 19, and his race long pressure finally paid off, going to the outside of the TRIDENT driver at the ever-popular Turn 2.
Câmara was in big trouble now as he struggled on his tyres and after running wide at Acque Minerali, Stromsted was through to second. It was a team effort for MP on the penultimate lap as both Tramnitz and Giusti went round the outside of Bilinski at Turn 2, promoting them to P6 and P7 respectively.
On to the final lap and Stromsted had closed to within DRS range of Ramos, but the VAR driver held on to claim his first Formula 3 Feature Race victory. Câmara crossed the line in third, ahead of Taponen and Boya, with Tramnitz and Giusti in sixth and seventh. Bilinski held off Tsolov for P8, as Laurens van Hoepen took the final point for ART Grand Prix.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1923999985021935872
Here’s how sprint F2 and F3 races panned out in Imola
[The story is as per press release]
