F3: Zach O’Sullivan wins Sunday’s race at Spielberg

British Prema team driver Zach O’Sullivan won the Formula 3 race in Spielberg, Austria, on Sunday. Gabriel Bortoleto and Chao Collet climbed the podium with him.

On Sunday morning the participants of the youth championship met with cloudy but dry weather, so everyone took to the starting grid on slicks. Pole holder Grégoire Saucy kept the lead at the start. Collet lost three positions in the top ten – missing O’Sullivan, Franco Colapinto and Kaylen Frederik.

The riders went through the first corners without any problems, but in the fourth Gabriel Mini flew into the gravel after contact with Luke Browning. Luke was able to go to the pits and replace the flat wheel, while his Hitech teammate remained standing, and to allow the marshals to remove his car, a safety car took to the track.

The race continued on the fifth lap of twenty-six. The restart went smoothly – the riders kept their position in the top ten. On the sixth lap, Collet tried to regain one of the lost positions, but in the battle for seventh place, Frederik deflected his attack.

On lap seven at turn four, Dino Beganovich attacked Grégoire Sosi under braking and took the race lead. Once on an empty track, the Prema rider started to pull away and set the best lap.

On lap ten at turn three, Paul Aron attacked Bortoleto on the brakes and moved up to third. On the eleventh lap, Paul Saucy attacked in the same corner, but his front wing hit Gregoire’s rear wheel. This resulted in a flat tire for the ART driver and he slowly pulled into the pits. Paul himself dropped to sixth, behind Bortoleto, O’Sullivan, Colapinto and Collet. At the end of the twelfth lap, however, Aron went to the pits for a new wing.

On the thirteenth lap, Bortoleto attacked Beganovich at turn four and took the race lead. After Dino lost another position and O’Sullivan missed out on second place.

On lap fifteen, Zach O’Sullivan attacked Bortoleto in the first turn and took the lead. Behind this pair, in the battle for third place, Colapinto overtook Beganovich.

On the seventeenth lap Marie Boya attacked Kaylen Frederik for eighth place, there was contact between them and both went to the pits – Kaylen to replace a broken damaged wing and Boya – a puncture.

On the eighteenth lap, due to serious degradation, the tires completely stopped keeping up with the track at Beganovich, and he missed Collet and Sebastian Montoya. On the twenty-third lap, Montoya attacked Collet and moved up to fourth.

On the last lap, Montoya attacked Colapinto for third, but the riders touched the wheels – Sebastian went into the gravel and Franco lost third, missing Chao Collet.

Zach O’Sullivan led the race to his third win of the season. Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto finished second and extended his lead in the individual standings. Chao Collet repeated Saturday’s sprint result to climb to the third step of the podium.

Sophia Flörsch finished ninth and thus earned her first points in Formula 3. Nikita Bedrin crossed the line in sixteenth. The next round of Formula 3 will be held in a week on July 7 and 9 in Silverstone.