F3: Colapinto gives Van Amersfoort’s first victory

Franco Colapinto’s victory ended Saturday’s Formula 3 race at Imola. The Argentine driver not only took the first win of his career, but also brought the first victory to the Van Amersfoort Racing team, which is in its debut season in Formula 3.

The sun shone brightly on Saturday morning in Imola, the asphalt was completely dry after Friday’s rain. Pole holder Franco Colapinto retained the lead and Ido Cohen, who started second, gave way to Chao Collet, Cush Maini and Victor Martin. At the end of the first lap, Isak Hadjar also overtook Cohen.

Friday’s qualifying winner Zane Maloney, who started twelfth on the reverse grid rule, took back two positions. Alexander Smolyar retained fifteenth place.

On lap four, Collet attacked Colapinto at the start line and took the lead in the race. On the fifth lap on the starting line, Hajjar passed Marten in the battle for 4th place.

In the seventh round, the battle for the podium unfolded between Hajjar and Maini. Isak charged into the chicane of the 5th-6th turns and came out third. Ido Cohen dropped to seventh, behind Jack Crawford.

On lap eight, fastest time winner Oliver Berman made a mistake battling his rivals and turned and rolled back past twenty. In the ninth lap, the virtual safety car mode was switched on, after which the real safety car drove onto the track. The cause was two independent incidents. First Zack O’Sullivan made a mistake and went into the gravel, and a few seconds later Jose-Maria Marti took off in the same spot, but took off so hard that he collided with Zack’s car. The race was over for both pilots.

At the same time, the stewards fined Kush Maini in fourth place with a drive through the pit lane for mistaking his grid position.

The race resumed on the twelfth lap. The first three held their positions and Maini missed Viktor Marten. At the end of the circle, Kush sat out a penalty and returned to the out-of-twenties track. At the same time, in Turn 4, Rhys Ushijima crashed into Federico Malvestiti, causing them both to retire and the safety car to go a second time.

Ido Cohen took advantage of the moment to pit to replace the front antlers, which were damaged during the restart on Kaylen Frederick’s car.

The race resumed on lap 17 of 20. In the top five there were no changes and behind the riders there were issues. Greugar Sosi went off track after coming into contact with an opponent and suffered a flat tire at the front right. Arthur LeClair knocked over a foam advertising banner, triggering a virtual safety car to clear the track.

The race resumed at the end of the 18th lap. Colapinto beat off Hajjar’s attack for second. On the last lap, Colapinto attacked leader Collet, passed him, and Hajjar, who was behind it, crashed into Chao, sending him into a U-turn. Collet got stuck in gravel, Hajjar fell back to fifth and Marten and Crawford climbed to second and third respectively. The top three finished in this order.

Victor Marten solidified his championship leadership. Alexander Smolyar avoided trouble along the distance chord and finished ninth.