F3: Lindblad wins second race in a row at Silverstone

Prema driver Arvid Lindblad won the Formula 3 race at Silverstone on Sunday. He was joined on the podium by Gabriele Mini and Callum Voisin.

Sunday morning the Formula 3 competitors were greeted with cloudy weather and a wet track, which meant that the drivers came to the grid on rain tyres. But there were two exceptions: Callum Voisin (8th) and Peter Vishnitsky (30th) decided to start on slicks. Lindblad, Meaney, Ramos, Beganovic, Goethe, Tramnitz, Boya, Flörsch, Smith and Intrafuvasak went for slicks at the end of the warm-up lap.

Pole holder Luke Browning reacted well to the starting lights and retained the lead into Turn 1. In the battle for third place Leonardo Fornaroli overtook Sami Megetunifa into Turn 6, and towards the end of the lap he overtook Max Esterson in the battle for second place. Callum Voisin moved up to sixth, Peter Vishnitsky to thirteenth.

At the end of the first lap, the safety car was deployed so that the marshals could remove Keane Shields’ car, which had spun in the first sector. Alex Dunne and Charlie Wurtz took the opportunity to pit and change into slicks, which moved Voisin up to fourth place.

The restart came on the third lap of twenty-two. Browning retained the lead, Voisin moved up to second and overtook Esterson and Fornaroli in the first sector. The advantage of slick tyres was clear and on the exit of turn eight he overtook Browning to lead the pack.

Other racers on slicks also had a noticeable advantage and were working their way to the top. The difference in speed was so noticeable that it was inevitable that an incident would occur. On the fourth lap, on the straight between turns five and six, a collision occurred between Dino Beganovic and Sofia Flörsch, whose car was badly damaged, and the safety car was deployed.

At this point, rain began to fall over the track and Tim Tramnitz, who had by then climbed to second place, went to the pits to get rain tyres. On the next lap, a large group of drivers went to change to slicks, except for the leading Voisin, Lindblad, Smith, Vishnitsky and Mini. By this time, the rain had noticeably increased.

The restart took place on lap eight. Browning overtook Voisin in the first corner, followed by Fornaroli, who quickly overtook Lindblad. The riders on slicks fell back to the bottom of the peloton within a few corners. Esterson rose to third, Leon to fourth and Megetunif to fifth.

At the end of lap eight, on the exit of turn fifteen, there was serious contact between Joshua Dufek, Sebastian Montoya and Alex Dunne. Dufek lost control of the car on the way out and collided with Dunne, who, due to inertia, touched Montoya’s car. Sebastian’s and Alex’s cars spun across the track and collided with the protective barrier at the pit lane entrance at high speed. Dufek returned to the pits and also retired.

The safety car entered the track and the pit lane entrance was closed as it was partially blocked by Montoya’s destroyed car.

While the safety car led the pack, the rain first eased and then started to drizzle again. The restart took place on lap 12. Browning and Fornaroli remained in first and second place, with Max Esterson missing Noel Leon in the battle for third place.

As the race progressed, the stopwatch began to count down: by the end of lap thirteen, there were eleven minutes left until the finish. On lap fourteen, Leon successfully attacked Fornaroli on the exit of Turn 15 and moved up to second place.

By lap 15 the track had dried out enough for the advantage to go to the slick racers, who started to regain positions and break through to the top. Callum Voisin moved up to second and then overtook the leading Browning without too much trouble.

By lap 16, Browning had dropped to fourth, behind Lindblad and Meaney on slicks.

In the final lap, Vausen was given a 5-second time penalty for attacking off-track at the start of the race. He crossed the finish line first, but after a penalty was applied, he dropped to third place and victory went to Arvid Lindblad. The Red Bull youth program driver thus won both Formula 3 races at Silverstone, which pleased Helmut Marko. In addition, Arvid rose to second place in the individual competition.

Gabriele Mini finished second, set the best lap and took the lead in the individual classification. Voisin’s third place is his best result of his career.

Luke Browning eventually finished eighth and dropped to third in the drivers’ standings, with Nikita Bedrin earning points for ninth place.

The eighth round of the Formula 3 season will take place in Hungary in two weeks at the Hungaroring circuit.