Richard Verschoor worked strategy to come through and win sprint F2 race in Barcelona, as Ivan Domingues took the victory in F3.
F2:
It was an even launch for front row starters Leonardo Fornaroli and Joshua Duerksen, but it was a superb one from Luke Browning, who took the lead down the Main Straight before getting to Turn 1. Jak Crawford also got away well from fourth and took second place from Fornaroli at the exit of Turn 3.
Ritomo Miyata was on a charge and by the start of Lap 2, the ART Grand Prix driver had dived to the inside of Roman Stanek at Turn 1 for sixth, having lined up in P13. At the start of Lap 4, Crawford closed in on Browning, before turning the outside to the inside line at Turns 4 and 5 to take the lead from the Hitech TGR driver.
Lap 7 of 26 and the drivers had settled into management mode although the entire field was in DRS range of each other. Crawford was threatening to escape out in front, but Browning had managed to keep the gap to 0.9s at the end of Lap 9. However, by the next lap, the DAMS Lucas Oil driver had succeeded in escaping DRS range, with the gap now 1.1s, and Browning coming under pressure from Fornaroli and Duerksen.
But at the end of Lap 13, Duerksen started to slow down in the final sector, with the AIX Racing driver pulling off the racing line and later into the pitlane. The Paraguayan did later return to the track, but four laps down. Moments later though, Verschoor and Lindblad went wheel-to-wheel into Turn 1, and the two collided, sending Sunday’s polesitter into a spin.
The Briton got going again, although he slipped to the back of the field. His teammate Josep María Martí did use the battle to his benefit to take seventh from the MP driver. As Lap 16 of 26 started, Browning had closed to within six-tenths of Crawford, with Fornaroli in third, Maini fourth, Miyata fifth and Stanek sixth.
At the start of Lap 18, the Safety Car was called upon after the PREMA Racing teammates Sebastián Montoya and Gabriele Minì collided at Turn 1. The contact sent both into a spin, and while the former could continue on, the latter was out of the race. With just over seven laps remaining, several drivers, from Verschoor in 10th down to Duerksen in P21 all pitted for the Soft tyre.
Racing resumed on Lap 21 of 26 and Crawford kept a hold of the lead, but the action had heated up further behind. Verschoor and Dunne – who were 10th and 11th at the restart – used the softer tyre to their advantage to come through the field and by the start of Lap 22, they were sixth and seventh.
The MP and Rodin driver were third and fourth by the end of the next lap, overtaking Miyata, Maini and Fornaroli, with Browning and Crawford next up. Verschoor then dived to the inside of Browning at Turn 7 to take second, while Dunne went past the Hitech TGR driver a few corners later at Turn 10.
The Dutchman took the lead at the start of Lap 24 down the Main Straight, and once again the Rodin rookie followed him through, going around the outside of Crawford at Turn 4. Villagómez was also on the move on his Soft tyres, and by the start of the penultimate late, the VAR driver had overtaken Browning for fourth.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1928799312948896186
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of Saturday afternoon’s Barcelona Sprint Race, PREMA Racing’s Sebastián Montoya has been penalised for causing a collision. During the race, Car 9 of Montoya collided with the PREMA Car 10 of Gabriele Minì at Turn 1. After the race, the Stewards investigated the matter using video evidence and also heard from both drivers and Team Representatives.
It was determined that Montoya had been at predominantly at fault for the incident as the driver of Car 9 had lost control of the car coming into the corner having braked later in an attempt to maintain the position. As a result, the Stewards handed a five-second time penalty to Montoya, dropping him from fifth to 11th in the final classification.
F3:
Roman Bilinski immediately covered off Martinius Stenshorne from the front row, but the Hitech TGR driver dived to the inside at Turn 1, while Tim Tramnitz opted for the outside line. The MP Motorsport driver collided with Stenshorne, spinning the Norwegian into the path of Bilinski. All three were out as a result of the contact, while a great start for Ivan Domingues from sixth on the grid left the rookie with the lead.
The Safety Car was deployed for various incidents on the opening lap, including a collision between Tuukka Taponen and Rafael Câmara. The ART Grand Prix suffered a slow getaway, and the TRIDENT driver was left unsighted, and with nowhere to go the pair made race-ending contact. The Safety Car was withdrawn and the Sprint resumed entering Lap 5, with Domingues getting a good restart to lead Noah Stromsted and Laurens van Hoepen in the top three.
Alessandro Giusti had to avoid contact with teammate Tramnitz on the opening lap but his recovery from P10 started with a move on the other MP driver Bruno del Pino at Turn 4. He wasn’t done, as a sweep around the outside of Noel León at Turn 5 gave him eighth position. Van Hoepen fell back from the top two after the restart, but Ramos was right with the ART car, and with DRS on Lap 9, the Mexican driver secured P3 into Turn 1.
Lap 12 and Théophile Nael looked to pull off a pass on James Wharton at Turn 1, the pair going wheel-to-wheel at Turn 1 that left the VAR driver taking to the escape road. The Frenchman emerged ahead on the road and with P6. Onto Lap 13 and van Hoepen lost another spot, this time to Campos’ Tsolov as the Bulgarian driver rounded the ART into Turn 1.
Giusti moved himself into seventh on Lap 15, using DRS to pass Wharton down the main straight. A few corners later, an opportunistic dive to the inside of Turn 5 gave Mari Boya 10th position in a great pass on compatriot del Pino. Boya’s charge continued at the expense of León the following lap, a DRS pass for ninth into the first corner on the PREMA Racing driver putting him eighth.
With five laps to go, Stromsted began to close back in on the race leader, lapping 0.3s quicker than Domingues and the TRIDENT rookie was on the cusp of gaining DRS once more. But, as the pair were about to begin Lap 18, the Dane suddenly slowed, pulling into the pitlane retiring from the race.
It left Domingues to lead home a 1-2 for VAR with Ramos second on a great day for the team. Tsolov was third for Campos with van Hoepen fourth in the ART. Nael capped off a great day for the Dutch squad with P5 ahead of the recovering Giusti and home hero Boya. Wharton was eighth ahead of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in P9 and León, who rounded out the points in P10.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1928734821833916582
UPDATE: After the conclusion of the FIA Formula 3 Sprint Race in Barcelona, two drivers have been penalised. Firstly, MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz has been handed a three-place grid penalty. The German made contact with Car 14, Hitech TGR driver Martinius Stenshorne at the start of the race, resulting in another collision with Rodin Motorsport Car 26 of Roman Bilinski.
After the race, the Stewards heard from both Stenshorne and Tramnitz and their team representatives, along with examining video evidence. They determined that Car 17 had been the driver wholly at fault for the incident. The MP driver did not secure the required positioning for an overtake on the outside with his front axle ahead of Car 14 at the apex of Turn 1 and was therefore not entitled to racing room into Turn 2.
The presence of Car 25 through Turns 1 and 2 was considered a mitigating factor. As a result, the Stewards elected to apply a three-place grid penalty. Tramnitz will serve the penalty in the Barcelona Feature Race. Finally, PREMA Racing driver Ugo Ugochukwu has been handed a 10-second time penalty.
During the Sprint Race, Car 3 allegedly left the circuit at Turn 2 and re-joined at Turn 3, gaining a lasting advantage in the process. After the race, the Stewards examined video evidence and heard from both the driver and team representative. They confirmed that Car 3 had left the track at Turn 2 and re-joined via the prescribed route at Turn 3 as stipulated by the Race Director’s Event Notes, overtaking Cars 10, 31 and 6 in the process.
Ugochukwu ceded one place to Car 10 of Mari Boya but failed to hand places back to Car 31 of Christian Ho and Car 6 of Charlie Wurz, thus, gained a lasting advantage by leaving the track and breaching Article 27.3 of the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Sporting Regulations.
As a result, the Stewards applied the standard 10-second time penalty. With the 10-seconds applied, Ugochukwu drops from P17 to 22nd in the Sprint Race classification. It moves each driver that finished behind the PREMA driver up one position each.
[The story is as per press release]
