Arvid Linblad took the feature FIA F2 win in Barcelona from Sebastain Montoya, as Rafael Camara extended his lead after F3 win.
F2:
It was a great start for Lindblad, as he kept Montoya at bay on the run down to Turn 1, while Kush Maini dropped from P3 to P12. Verschoor was up two places to third, as home favourite Josep María Martí went on a charge, going round the outside of Joshua Duerksen at Turn 7 to claim sixth after starting in 11th.
From Lindblad in first to Duerksen in seventh, they had pulled away from Jak Crawford on the Hards, who was coming under attack from Alexander Dunne for P8 on Lap 3. Onto Lap 5, and Leonardo Fornaroli came in to serve a 10-second stop and go penalty for a starting procedure infringement.
Duerksen, who had been putting Martí under pressure for sixth, was the first Option tyre runner to pit for the Hards on Lap 7, while Lindblad had built a 2.6s lead over Montoya. Verschoor in third and Luke Browning in fifth were the next to pit on Lap 9, and they came out in P16 and P17, just ahead of Duerksen.
Montoya was next in, and he returned to the track ahead of Verschoor, Browning and Duerksen, with the latter two battling for position going into Turn 1. However, the AIX Racing driver took the position off track and was later given two five-second penalties, one for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, and another for not following the Race Director’s instructions.
Campos then called their drivers in, first Lindblad on Lap 14, and he managed to stay ahead of Montoya and Verschoor. Martí was in on the next tour, and the Spaniard managed to stay ahead of Duerksen and overcut Browning. Onto Lap 17 of 37, and Ritomo Miyata was the last Soft tyre runner to pit, putting Crawford into the lead on the Hard tyre ahead of Dunne, and Oliver Goethe.
Lindblad had been picking his way through the drivers on old Hard tyres, but after being held up by Gabriele Minì, Montoya reduced the gap from 2.6s to 1.5s in just one lap. Behind them, Browning and Miyata collided as they went side-by-side into Turn 4 on Lap 22. The ART driver had to go through the gravel, while the former had to pit for a new front wing and was later given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision.
Crawford was the first Hard tyre runner to pit for the Softs on Lap 23. In the battle for what was effectively P4, Martí dived to the inside of Stanek at Turn 1, while up ahead, Verschoor was half a second back of Montoya. Lindblad was back in the lead of the race as Dunne pitted for his Soft tyres, coming back out in P12 on Lap 26.
Crawford was making his way through the field on his Softs, but as he looked to get past Duerksen for P8, the pair collided at Turn 3, although they were able to continue on. The DAMS driver was up to sixth on Lap 29 after overtaking Maini and Stanek, while Dunne’s dive to the inside of Miyata at Turn 5 put him up to ninth.
In the battle for the podium places, Crawford had closed to within 1.3s of Montoya and Verschoor, while Dunne was up to fifth after a move on Martí at Turn 10 on Lap 33. Crawford had DRS on Verschoor on Lap 35, but as they went past Turn 3, they drove by a slow moving Fornaroli. The Invicta Racing driver came to a halt in the gravel, bringing out the Safety Car.
With the Invicta not clear in time to go back racing, the Feature ended as the Safety Car was withdrawn on the final lap and Lindblad crossed the line to claim his second victory of the season. Montoya was second and Verschoor third, with Crawford and Dunne’s late charge seeing them into fourth and fifth respectively, while Martí ended up in P6. Maini was seventh, ahead of the ART pairing of Martins and Miyata, with Minì rounding out the points in 10th.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1929101573122056584
F3:
Câmara aced his start but Nikola Tsolov didn’t, he was slow to get up to speed and fell to eighth by the time they made Turn 1. The Championship leader retained the lead ahead of Laurens van Hoepen and Nael in second and third respectively as the top three built a comfortable gap to Tuukka Taponen in fourth by the end of the first lap.
Contact between Roman Bilinski and Jose Garfias brought out the Safety Car on Lap 3, the pair tangling at Turn 4 and coming to a halt. With their cars cleared, racing resumed going onto Lap 8 and after a great start from P10 on the grid, Martinius Stenshorne claimed P4 from Taponen at the first corner.
The Finn’s day was made worse on the following lap as he slowed and dropped to the back of the field. Alessandro Giusti moved up into the top five as a result and that soon became fourth, with a pass on Stenshorne into the first corner on Lap 11. The top three continued to break away from the chasing pack and were two seconds clear by Lap 14, as van Hoepen and Nael remained within DRS range in the lead battle.
Further back, Tsolov moved himself back into the top five with a DRS pass on Stenshorne on Lap 17. Ivan Domingues repeated the move on the following lap to demote the Hitech TGR driver to seventh position. Lap 18 and contact between Nicola Lacorte and Brando Badoer resulted in the PREMA Racing driver getting stuck in the gravel trap at Turn 1, bringing out the Safety Car once more.
Racing resumed on Lap 21 and van Hoepen was under pressure from Nael in the podium battle. The Frenchman pulled off a brave overtake on the outside of Turn 1 to move up to second. Their fighting allowed Câmara to escape up the road and out of DRS range and he went on to claim win number three of 2025 for TRIDENT.
Nael completed a strong weekend for VAR by finishing second and after a last lap overtake into Turn 1, Giusti claimed his maiden F3 podium in P3. Van Hoepen wound up fourth for ART ahead of Tsolov in P5. Domingues was sixth with Tim Tramnitz in P7. Noah Stromsted, Martinius Stenshorne and Callum Voisin rounded out the points, after a time penalty for track limits dropped ART’s James Wharton down the order.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1929075311523615205
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of the Barcelona Feature Race, Nicola Lacorte has been handed suspended from the next round, while Roman Bilinski has been penalised. After receiving a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for multiple delta variations, the Stewards determined that the Driver of Car 29 has accumulated a total of fourteen (14) penalty points on their record.
In accordance with Article 39.3 of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Sporting Regulations, any driver who accrues twelve (12) penalty points during a race will be suspended for the following Competition. As the twelfth point was incurred during today’s Feature Race, the Driver of Car 29 will therefore be suspended from participation in the next Competition.
Therefore, Lacorte has been handed a one round ban that he is set to serve at Spielberg. Secondly, Roman Bilinski has received a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Jose Garfias. The Stewards spoke to both drivers and their team representatives after the race while also examining all the video evidence available before determining that Bilinski had been wholly to blame for the collision between the two drivers.
As Bilinski did not finish the race, the 10-second time penalty is converted into a five-place grid drop that will be applied in the next race in which he participates. Thirdly, Jesse Carrasquedo has also been given a post-race 10-second stop-and-go penalty for failing to start from the pitlane when out of position at the Safety Car Line 1. The Stewards reviewed video and positioning data and heard from the team representative of Hitech TGR.
The Stewards determined that Car 15 was out of position at Safety Car Line 1, and was behind Nicola Marinangeli when he should have been in front. As a result, Carrasquedo has been given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, but as it is a post-race penalty, it has been converted into a 30-second time penalty. This drops Carrasquedo from P22 to P25 in the final classifcation.
Here’s how F2 and F3 sprint race panned out in Barceloa
[The story is as per press release]
