Williams Racing Academy member Luke Browning won the Formula 3 race in Bahrain on Sunday. He was joined on stage by Christian Mansell and Tim Tramnitz.
Pole holder Dino Beganovic had a slow start due to a stuck gearbox – he was overtaken by the entire peloton before the first corner on the straight. Luke Browning led the race, with Sami Megetunif in second and Tim Tramnitz in third. Gabriele Mini, who started third behind Beganovic, also lost time during acceleration and fell to sixth place.
On the second lap of twenty-two, in a tense battle with rivals, Mari Boya suffered a puncture in the left rear tire and rolled out of the top ten. Boya was later given a 5-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, where he stopped to change tires. On an empty track, Beganovich started to overtake the peloton and set the best lap.
On the third lap Christian Mansell made a beautiful attack on Tramnitz and moved up to third place. On lap five Mansell gained another position by overtaking Megetuneef. At this point the lead Browning had a one second lead.
By lap nine, Mansell had closed the gap to Browning to five-tenths and started to put pressure on Luke, but it never came to a serious attack.
On the nineteenth lap, Tramnitz attacked Megetunif in the first corner and returned to the top three. A similar maneuver by Keane Shields on Joshua Dufek a lap later failed – the drivers touched and Dufek’s car spun. Shields received a ten-second penalty.
Luke Browning confidently led the race to his first Formula 3 victory. Christian Mansell finished 1.2 seconds behind, and season debutant and Red Bull youth program member Tim Tramnitz completed the top three.
Saturday’s sprint winner Arvid Lindblad finished eighth. Pole holder Dino Beganovic managed to fight back to thirteenth position after problems at the start. Nikita Bedrin finished eighteenth.
The second stage of the Formula 3 season will be held in Melbourne, Australia from March 22 to 24.
| Pilot | Team | Circles |
| 1. L. Browning | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 22 |
| 2. K. Mansell | ART Grand Prix | 22 |
| 3. T. Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | 22 |
| 4. S.Megetunif | Trident | 22 |
| 5. S. Ramos | Trident | 22 |
| 6. G. Mini | Prema Racing | 22 |
| 7. L. Fornaroli | Trident | 22 |
| 8. A. Lindblad | Prema Racing | 22 |
| 9. A. Dunn | MP Motorsport | 22 |
| 10. O. Goethe | Campos Racing | 22 |
| 11. N. Tsolov | ART Grand Prix | 22 |
| 12. N. Leon | Van Amersfoort Racing | 22 |
| 13. D. Beganovich | Prema Racing | 22 |
| 14. M. Stenshorn | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 22 |
| 15. L. van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | 22 |
| 16. C. Wurtz | Jenzer Motorsport | 22 |
| 17. S. Montoya | Campos Racing | 22 |
| 18. N. Bedrin | PHM AIX Racing | 22 |
| 19. M. Zagazeta | Jenzer Motorsport | 22 |
| 20. T. Intrafuvasak | PHM AIX Racing | 22 |
| 21. C. Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | 22 |
| 22. T. Smith | Van Amersfoort Racing | 22 |
| 23. D. Loke | Rodin Motorsport | 22 |
| 24. M. Esterson | Jenzer Motorsport | 22 |
| 25. P. Vishnitsky | Rodin Motorsport | 22 |
| 26. K. Shields | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 22 |
| 27. D. Dufek | PHM AIX Racing | 22 |
| 28. K.Stuka | MP Motorsport | 22 |
| 29. M. Boya | Campos Racing | 22 |
| 30. S. Floersch | Van Amersfoort Racing | 21 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
