Martinius Stenshorn won the Formula 3 sprint in Melbourne on Saturday. Together with the Norwegian driver of the Hitech team, Arvid Lindblad and Laurens van Heupen climbed to the podium.
Just like in the first sprint of the season in Bahrain, van Heupen started from pole in Australia. He confidently maintained the lead into the first corner, preventing Stenshorn from attacking. Christian Mansell retained third place. Luke Browning moved up to seventh position and set the fastest time on the second lap.
On the third lap of twenty, Esterson began to actively put pressure on Van Heupen – the drivers battled each other for several turns and Martinius took the lead at turn eleven. Behind Browning he rolled out of the twenties due to problems with the car. Arvid Lindblad beat Oliver Goethe for fourth place. On lap five, Browning entered the pit lane and returned to the track two laps behind the leader.
Lindblad continued to gain ground, passing Mansell on the outside on lap six heading into turn nine for third place. On the same lap, Marie Boya pushed Bedrin off the track and then overtook Goethe in the battle for fifth place. The stewards found no fouls on Marie’s part in the attack on Bedrin.
Boya continued to attack and on lap seven he overtook Mansell in the battle for fourth place. Christian continued to lose ground and on lap nine he dropped to thirteenth place.
On lap nine, Lindblad passed van Heupen for second place in turn three.
On the eleventh lap, Sebastian Montoya, braking in the first corner, overtook Dino Beganovic in the battle for eighth place. In the third corner, after wheel contact, Beganovich lost another position, allowing Charlie Wurz to take the lead.
One lap later Montoya passed Bedrin and moved up to seventh place. Meanwhile, Lindblad closed the gap with race leader Stenshorn to one and a half seconds.
On the fourteenth lap, a collision took place in the first corner between Tasanopol Intrafuwasak and Tomi Smith. Smith had no time to brake at the end of the straight and collided with his opponent from behind. Tomi continued to race, but Intrafuvasak’s car got stuck in the gravel and the safety car came onto the track.
The race restarted on the seventeenth lap. In the top ten, Dino Beganovic overtook Charlie Wurz for eighth place at turn ten. Then Wurz was able to stay ahead of a number of rivals led by Bedrin – Charlie rolled back past the top ten.
On the last lap Beganovich gained another position by overtaking Montoya. Montoya was followed by Bedrin and Alex Dunne. Beganovic continued to fight and passed Gabriele Mini as he accelerated out of the final corner.
Martinius Stenshorn did not let Lindblad get within attack range and took the race to his first victory in Formula 3. For Arvid Lindblad, the podium was the second in his career after winning the sprint in Bahrain. Laurens van Heupen was also on the podium for the second time this season.
Nikita Bedrina’s eighth place is the best result for a PHM Aix rider this season. Championship leader Luke Browning earned no points.
The results are being prepared
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.
