Formula 3: Bortoleto wins Sunday’s race

Gabriele Mini crossed the finish line first in the race of the first round of the Formula 3 season in Bahrain on Sunday, but fell outside the top three due to a penalty for violation of the starting procedure and the victory went to Gabriel Bortoleto.

Pole holder Mini did not start optimally and missed Bortoleto in the first corner. At the fourth corner, Mini lost another position – he was overtaken by Grégoire Sosi.

Even worse started Chao Collet, who climbed to the podium in Saturday’s race – the Brazilian rolled back past the top twenty. Yesterday’s winner José-Maria Marti moved up to tenth place in the third round.

Once on an empty track, Bortoleto started to build up the gap – after two laps his lead had grown to two seconds. Behind Mini, attacks launched on Sosi – on the fourth lap, Gabriele regained second place.

On the fifth lap, Kaylen Frederik attacked Leonardo Fornaroli into the first corner and moved up to fifth. At the same time, ninth-placed Hugh Barter began to roll back due to a puncture in the right rear wheel. Racer Jenzer managed to reach the pits, but the chances of points had already been lost. On lap six, Johnny Edgar pitted to replace the front wing.

At the start of the eighth lap, the safety car left the track. The reason was the incident at the eighth turn – Marie Boya crashed into Tommy Smith. Smith spun but was able to continue, while Boi’s car broke the front suspension due to contact and he pulled off the track.

The restart was given on the tenth lap and a few seconds before that the stewards imposed a 5 second penalty on Mini for violating the starting procedure. The top three held on, but Mini retook the race lead at turn six. Dino Beganovic moved up to sixth ahead of Fornaroli.

The leading Mini tried to create a five-second break on the peloton, but Bortoleto wouldn’t let him go for more than a second. On the thirteenth lap, Fornaroli lost two more positions – he was immediately overtaken by Marty and Luke Browning. Without delay, Browning overtook Marty in the battle for seventh on the same lap. Further on, Beganovich moved up to fifth ahead of Frederik.

On the fifteenth lap on the start straight, Oliver overtook Goethe Sosi and moved up to third. On lap sixteen, Browning pulled back one more position ahead of Kaylen Frederik.

The battle continued throughout the platoon. On lap nineteen, Sebastian Montoya overtook Fornaroli on the straight for ninth. Coming out of turn four, Leonardo lost another position and passed Paul Aron. The tires on Fornaroli’s car were no longer holding the track and he missed Zach O’Sullivan and Nicola Tzolov. On lap 2, the Trident rider’s problems were compounded by a right rear wheel puncture.

On the twenty-first lap, Beganovich overtook Sosi for fourth. In the back of the first corner there was a collision between Smith and Roberto Faria. Smith’s car remained parked in the first corner relegation zone and the safety car came onto the track. This effectively eliminated the leading Mini’s chances of a podium finish, which by then was virtually third by a penalty.

The race ended behind the safety car – Mini moved up to eighth in the final standings. Victory was celebrated by Gabriel Bortoleto, who earned the first points in Formula 3. He also set the best lap of the race. Together with Bortoleto, Oliver Goethe and Dino Beganovich climbed the podium – for the whole trio, the podium was the first in their careers.

Nikita Bedrin won back several positions and finished seventeenth. The next round of Formula 3 will take place from March 31 to April 2 in Melbourne, Australia.